IQLR (International QL Report)

ISSN 1078-5787

Volume 5 Issue 4
November/December
International QL Report 1995

DI-REN's NEW AFFORDABLE

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2

Contents..............

3 QL 2000
ll QPAC2 for Starters
13 Muenchen Meeting
14 A Comment From the Publisher
19 Around the World in 80 Ways
26 QL Pente - A Review
28 Town Crier
31 QXL in Command
33 >>> QDOS, QL - the Future
35 2? Primus ??
37 QXL...at Full Throttle
42 IQLR

Advertisers..........

7 QBOX-USA
8 MINI-MART of VALUES
9 JOCHEN MERZ SOFTWARE

10 QUANTA
14 TF SERVICES
15 PROGS

16 QUO VADIS DESIGN

17 Q BRANCH

18 W. N. RICHARDSON & CO
27 MECHANICAL AFFINITY

29 QUBBESOFT P/D

30 DIGITAL PRECISION LTD
43 MIRACLE SYSTEMS LTD

44 DI-REN

QL 2000

London. ENGLAND - Ken Brick wood
section one: —\F ITS THAT SIMPLE, WHY DON'T YOU BUILD IT YOURSELF !

Before I explain my ideas on a possible successor to the QL, | will attempt to clarify a few points. | am NOT an
expert. I definitely lack the skills, and I probably don't have the talent, to devise any kind of QL replacement.
My technical knowledge is limited to odd bits of information gathered from the following sources :

QL SERVICE MANUAL MAPLIN'S CATALOGUE
(electrical & electronic components )
QUANTA + OTHER QL PUBLICATIONS ST FORMAT + OTHER COMPUTER MAGS

1 AM aware of the difficulties. | know enough about the somewhat chequered history of the SINCLAIR
computers (and their derivatives ) to realise that the process of creating hardware, software, etc, has an almost
unlimited potential for throwing up all sorts of weird, unexpected, and downright intractable, problems.

1 am not in the business of peddling wish lists, pipedreams, or phoney promises. The one thing I would like to
see is a secure and comprehensive range of upgrsde options that will ensure the continued survival of QDOS and
SMSQJE. These notes are NOT an attempt to tell the hardware designers :

"You must do this!" or "Don't do that!"

They're simply a layman's suggestions as to what might represent the next logical steps in the developement of
the QL.

section two: DO WE NEED A QL REPLACEMENT ?
There are a number of reasons why such a product is necessary.

1 > The EMC Directive. The European Union has enacted legislation that will, amongst other things, prohibit
EU companies from supplying EU citizens with the following types of equipment

Systems which exceed the limits specified by the Electromagnetic Interference Regulations.

1/O cards and other modules that are designed specifically for non-conforming hardware ( even if they meet the
required standards ).

This law has VERY serious implications for the QL community. MIRACLE SYSTEMS, TF SERVICES, and
other traders, cannot legally sell their hardware products to EU citizens after 31st December 1995.

2 > AMSTRAD ( forgive me for swearing ) own the marketing and manufacturing rights. 1 don't think they
would be particularly happy if someone produced and supplied a new system which contained the QL
motherboard, ZX8302, or any other SINCLAIR component. The Beast of Brentwood & His Merrie Men were
not impressed when CST gave the QL a radical makeover and called it the THOR 8.

3 > The QL support chips are operating at ( or pretty close to ) the limits of their capabilities, and can barely cope
with the demands placed on them.

4 > Limited expansion facilities. It would be very difficult ( if not impossible ) to add a faster processor; more
memory; etc, to a QL fitted with the various upgrades that are either available now or in the near future. Two
other factors restrict the machine's expansion capabilities. The motherboard doesn't have a multi-slot backplane,
and the thing generates so much RF interference it's a miracle that any add-ons and peripherals can be connected
to the system.

5 > The QL isn't exactly future proof. Although most of the machines currently in use are going to provide years
of ( fairly ) reliable service, they won't last forever and there's a finite supply of spares & replacements that will

QL 2000 - (cont'd)

eventually run out. Moreover, an unholy alliance of wonderful widgets. state-of-the-art system software, and a
lousy integration module based on SPECTRUM technology is unlikely to attract many new users.

section three: CONCEPTS

The QX1 and QX2 specifications represent an approach to hardware developement that is somewhat different to
the methods used by the computer manufacturers.* For the sake of convenience | have given this system design
philosophy a name - BLACK BOX ARCHITECTURE ( or BBA for short ) BBA is based on the following
ideas.

1>. UNIVERSAL HARDWARE. _ Intelligent Terminals, Workstations, and everthing in between, could be
constructed from more or less the same components. In other words, the entry level machine and the
top-of-the-range mode! would be totally identical apart from a few differences, e.g.:-

BOTTOM TOP

2 or 4 MB RAM At least 16MB RAM

68020 CPU 68040 or POWERPC

256k VIDEO RAM At least 1 MB VIDEO RAM

2>. THE ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY, PORTABLE, FUTURE-PROOF COMPUTER. As far as |
know, there is no such thing as a truly green system. However, we can minimise our impact on the environment,
and achieve the other objectives, by adopting a few fairly simple measures.

i. Every IC, and maybe 1 or 2 other components, should be mounted ina socket. If we also used semi-custom
chips ( e.g. GALs ) to handle the internal I/O and logic functions, then everything except the PCB(s) could be

reused.

ii. Provide equipment that enables users to run their computer from batteries and connect an LCD screen.
Incorporate a power management system that puts the computer into standby mode if it doesn't receive any input
after a user-definable timeout period.

iii. If the system was designed in such a way that its performace was governed by three factors, i.e:-
PROCESSOR SPEED - MEMORY SIZE - HOW MANY EXPANSION SLOTS
then we could extend the lifespan to at least ten years.

3>. REAL PLUG AND PLAY - BEWARE OF IMITATIONS ! Adding more memory, faster processors, I/O
cards, etc should be a simple procedure that doesn't involve anything more complicated than:-

Plugging the hardware into the appropriate socket, Installing some software, And ( maybe ) removing an existing
component.

PATHETIC COMPUTERS - Brute force and crass stupidity

AMIGA & MAC - Weird and incomprehensible
ST & QL - Son of 8-bit

4>. UNIBUS A mechanism that supports multiple bus masters, and provides a standard set of protocols for
interfacing and addressing:-

PROCESSORS

MEMORY - all kinds

SIGNAL GENERATORS - e.g. sound chips and video controllers.

5>. THEFIVEELEMENTS. BBA divides computer hardware into five categeries
4

QL 2000 - (cont'd)
BUSCARD. A PCB that provides the address and data lines, plus any physical connections that may be required.

PXM. The Program eXecution Module consists of two sub-modules SYSTEM ROM(s) that contain
QDOS/SMS + TK2 etc, or a BIOS PRIMARY PROCESSING UNIT ( PPU ) - a daughterboard fitted with a
68xxx processor.

WORKSPACE is simply the RAM that's used to store programs, data, etc

BLACK BOX. A Black Box is an autonomous or semi-autonomous subsystem that automatically performs a
closely related set of functions. The main CPU doesn't need to know anything about it's activities - hence the
name. Black boxes have two other significant features. BBA doesn't care if the hardware is plugged directly into
the motherboard, or mounted on a card that occupies an expansion slot. They could be Intelligent Peripheral
Conwollers, Emulators, or anything else you want them to be.

TRANSWARP MODULES. Semi-custom devices that moniter the buses, and supervise the transfer
of data to and from :

PXM

WORKSPACE

BLACK BOXES

DEMO - DISPLAYING TEXT AND GRAPHICS ON THE SCREEN

The following example will ( hopefully ) give you an idea of how BBA might work.
The main CPU sends a control signal that tells TRANSWARP 1 "I am sending some video data ‘a

TRANSWARP 1 writes the data to the VIDEO RAM. The VIDEO CONTROLLER reads the data and converts
it into signals that can be understood by a monitor.

section four: QXone - A REPLACEMENT MOTHERBOARD FOR THE QL. Draft
Specification 30-09-95.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Leon Heller - who initially floated the idea of building a QL replacement round the PHILIPS PCB 68070.
(Some Thoughts On a QL Replacement - QUANTA July 1990 )

Zeljko Nastasic - whose WARPIO idea inspired the I/O SUBSYSTEM specs. ( The Shape of Things to Come
-- IQLR Jan/Feb 1995 )

Maplin Catalogue - Philips SAA1099 specifcation ( 1993/1994 Edition -- page 545 )

GUIDELINES. Provide QL users with a system upgrade that doesn't require any additional hardware apart
from a GOLDCARD/SUPER GOLD; QL ROMS; SUPERHERMES or HERMES/8049 + KEYBOARD i/f
KEYBOARD; a desktop, tower, or laptop enclosure; and a PSU.

Installing the QXone should be a DIY operation that is well within the capabilities of anyone who can insert &
remove ICs, and wield a screwdriver.

1/O functions that require the use of several generic components, should be handled by custom or semi-custom
chips. Off-the-shelf components could be used to support the remaining functions.

COMPONENTS & I/O FUNCTIONS:
FIRMWARE: JS ROMS or MINERVA

QL 2000 - (cont'd)
PROGAMMABLE LOGIC DEVICES : TRANSWARP 1

MASTER CLOCK GENERATOR SYSTEM LOGIC

BUS CONTROLLER VIDEO HARDWARE SUPERVISOR
TRANSWARP 2

INTERRUPT CONTROLLER SERIAL 1/O SUPERVISOR
NETWORK INTERFACE DRIVER ST COMPATIBLE MOUSE i/f

VO SUB-SYSTEMS : BLACK BOX 1

MASTERPIECE GRAPHICS CONTROLLER ?
256k VIDEO RAM

BLACK BOX 2

1 PHILIPS PCB68070, MOTOROLA MC68340, or whatever 68020 variant is best suited to the job.
128/256k DUAL-PORT RAM

2 SOCKET FOR 8049/HERMES/SUPERHERMES

3 PHILIPS SAA 1099

1 _RS232 SERIAL I/F NETWORK RECEIVE + TRANSMIT
FIFO EMULATION 68xxx-Compatible Slave Processor
2-CHANNEL DMA PORT MEMORY MANAGEMENT UNIT

2 KEYBOARD -JOYSTICK- MOUSE
3 STEREO SOUND GENERATOR

INTERFACES

Q-SLOT a QL-Compatible expansion slot that will accommodate - QPLANE; SUPER GOLDCARD; QUBIDE;
etc.

QART QL-Compatible ROM port

CTL ST-Compatible JOYSTICK + MOUSE port

SER1 + SER2 RS232 ports - preferably with DTR; DSR; + DCD lines

MONITOR QL + PC compatible monitor port

QX-NET A high performance network i/f compatible with QL NET and QUBBESOFT's
FASTNET

AUDIO Headphone/Active speaker jack, and possibly hi-fi audio outputs to facilitate

connection to stereo systems
section five: Qx2-A STAND-ALONE QDOS/SMS COMPUTER

PREAMBLE - QX2 uses the same hardware as QXone, but there are a number ofsignificant differences. For
example, everything is mounted on a single board.

(ADDITIONAL COMPONENTS) MANDATORY :
68xxx CPU

At least 2 or 4MB RAM
8473 FLOPPY DISK CONTROLLER

QL 2000 - (cont'd)

PARALLEL ( Cenwonics ) i/f
IDE CONTROLLER
SOCKETS FOR ADDITIONAL VIDEO RAM

BACKPLANE Providing sufficient expansion slots to accommodate : At least 12MB RAM
At least 3 QCARDS - Black Box modules which extend the capabilities ofthe system in various ways. ¢.g

1/0 SUBSYSTEMS
HARDWARE BASED PC, ST, etc EMULATORS

OPTIONAL :
CPU and RAM to facilitate background disk operations.

ADD-ONS :
BUS EXTENDERS providing additional expansion slots
BUS CONVERTERS to facilitate the connection of various backplanes, namely:-
ISA/LOCALBUS/PCI , PCMCIA , VME

SUPPORT CHIPS - ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: PHILIPS PCB 68070 - 68000-Compatible Processor
running at 10Mhz; RS-232C Serial Interface; 12C Serial Bus I/f; On-chip Clock; MMU: Two-Channel DMA
Controller; CMOS Technology; 4 Decoded Interrupt Inputs; 2 Programmable Interrupt Inputs: Decoded Interrupt
acknowledge; 16-Bit Counter/Timer.

128/256k DUAL-PORT RAM - This memory chip could be used by the 68070 etc to provide buffering for the
NETWORK, and possibly, other interfaces.

PHILIPS SAA 1099 - Six Independant Frequency Generators each having 8 octaves + 256 tones per octave: 2
Noise Generators; 6 Noise/Frequency Mixers; 12 Amplitude Controllers: 2 Envelope Controllers; 2 Six-Channel
Mixers/Sink Analogue Output Stages.

GQBOx-USA
810-254-9878

3200-14400 bps 8N1 24 hours

PRERESSS ONnN PPP

Celebrating 2 years of BBS operation helping North American @L

enthusiasts keep in touch with other users cround the world.

Independent Producer's

Independent Producer's

Mini Mart of Values

"The painless way 10 shop world wide "

UPDATE! MAGAZINE
P.O. BOX 17
MEXICO, IN 46958 USA

The LARGEST magazine in the world supporting
the Sinclair QL, Spectrum,TS2068, ZX81, and
Cambridge Z88 Computers.

A quarterly maj
‘OBER to
of publication.

ine with issue year running from
ILY. We are NOW in our 8th year

To subscribe send a check made payable to UPDATE
Magazine for the amount that is applicable to you.

USA & CANADA $20

Rest of World £18 or DM40

Cash, Checks, or Money Orders are acceptible.

Albin Hessler Software

Im Zeilfeld 25 D-72631 Aichtal
Tel + Fax +49 7127 56280

Software for the Pointer Environment

Cueshell (Ver 1.16) £39.00 $63.00 ov98
Desktop Program. Now with screen saver
CueDark especially designed for SMSQ.

EASYPTR 3 Development System
Part 1 Basis Jobs £39.00 $63.00 ov 98
Part 2SBASIC Toolkit £19.50 $31.50 pm 49
Part 3 Library Routines& 19.50 $31.50 om 49

SERMouse £29.00 $47.00 om73
QL serial mouse (works with SGC and SMSQ/E)

Ready for SER2 (specify BT or SUB-D9)

DISA 2 £ 39.00 $63.00 om 98

Interactive Disassembler. Many new features

Order through IQLR or directly from us
We speak English.
We accept eurocheques in DM oF personal cheques in
‘any EU currency drawn to any EU bank

How To Order

SOLVIT-PLUS 2
ELECTRONIC DICTIONARY

Anagram, Wildcard, Palindrome, Scramble
and Word in Word searches.

English, Dutch, french, German and
{talian ‘dictionaries supplied.

Ideal for word games and crosswords

£I5 * FLUO * DM35 & $22

Geoff Wicks, Bertrand Russellstraat 22,
1097 HL Amsterdam, The Net ands.
Tel: (31) 020 692 - 1521 Postbank 4111942

Memory expansion required and fast processor advisable,
French dictionary requires HD, ED or Hard Disk. Smal!
Spanish and Welsh dictionaries also supplied. Pay by cash.
Eurocheque in guilders, International Money Order or
credit transfer to Postbank account. No currency
charges if you pay by sterling cheque drawn on UK bank!

Wood and Wind Computing
RR3 Box 92

Cornish, NH 03745 USA
Telephone: +1 603 675 2218

QLerk - A complete financial program for the QL
QLerk software (V3.21) with tutorial $34 £23
QLerk manual £25
QLerk Software & Manual £41

DBEasy - A menu based database system
DBEasy software (V1.6) $24
DBEasy upgrade (give old version) $7

DBProgs - A toolkit of handy ARCHIVE procedures
DBProgs software (V1.8) $18 £12
DBProgs update (give old version) $7 £5

£16
£5

DBTutor - A general purpose learning program
DBTutor software (vi -5) $12

£8

You may order direct from the supplier (prices listed include VAT where applicable and airmail post anywhere in the world. For your convience
you may place your order through IQLR and take advantage of our ability to accept Personal or Bank cheques drawn on a UK bank or Euro
cheques drawn in Pounds Sterling. You may also make payment using Postal (drawn in either USS or Pounds Sterling), Personal or Bank cheques
in USS drawn on a US bank.

‘When ordering through IQLR, PLEASE make all cheques payable to IQLR and post your order to either our UK or North American office. We
will process you order and the individual supplier will post it directly to you.

PLEASE NOTE: All ENQUIRES are to be made directly to the supplier NOT IQLR.

Im stillen Winkel 12 * 47169 Duisburg * Germany

@ 0203-502011 Fax 0203-502012 Mailbox 0203-502013
Re NEW) PHONE NUMBERS AN ACTIVEN Haase dant use the

QD Version (LOUMP

|As you might catch trom the picture, QD looks a bit different: many common menu options are now Now you now scale screen dumps exactly and to any size you like, You can position

icy avaiable via icon! Bul there is mae: blocks canbe shied let or right even wi defined (a pelecly on We Pape The exact ration remains intact Any resolution of your

character (easy to add °° or “*” comments inter is supported LDUMP works on all dol-matrix printers, and there are also

now). Search and Replace are now one i ===) odes for imel and Laserpinlers. The prntoul can be hue or nverled

integrated menu, theretore easier to handle (see = Colour-extracts of up to eight colours and colow-printing is possible! You can dump

in the picture) QD now flags if the current text . the contents of the screen or windows, contents of a fie or a save area. LDUMP can

has been modified. Steady cursor is back! More a = be invoked using HOTKEY or BASIC-commands. DM 6S,

luselul Keystrokes added and. users withou

mouse can now get to the icon bar with a :

keystroke. This and much more is avaiable in QBasic Petes Gut [v3.00]

lhe current version of QD, the flexible and . : 2 QDOS/SMS Reference Monua!

versatile Editor for the Pointer Environment, " 4 Update shows for Ret Mono (nc. p)

Price is stil the same: DMI 125,- eer Yaraions {v3.05}

For update prices reler to the “update” box of arr Gc Vata [v0.26]

this od. sup 1V3.06]
1V1.13]

J

V02 BASIC Extension

(Over 350 new instructions, with 700k Assembler source lext (for GST/Quanta OMAC Assembler). The

collection consists of 8 diferent blocks with a base block, so that you can create the tookki you need.

1/02 provides commands for various purposes. lots of which you haven' found anywhere else yet

search \/O data and channels use and redefine them. Calculation. Job-communication String Handing

TRA-tables. 4 additional character sets, data transport MEM and STAK device. Job and System with

thet data, load/save. Slandard-. lutle- and 3D-graphics. Windows, Timer, sound-generalor. Program-

able error handing. Its usetul to have a basic knowledge o! the QDOS/SMSQ sysien, DM99,- | QMENU [¥6.20]
typeset 93-£SC/P2 (Stylus driver for on)

QUiberator
QUBIDE Horddiek interface WINED ew Varstand
QPLANE - QL. Backpla: DiskMate

FLP/RAM Lavel 2 device drivers for SuperQBoord or TrumpCord SPREAD

SER Mouse software driver QMON/JMON

SER Mouse Pockoge (mouse, daptor & driver) CueSheil

28301

Ql Keyboard membrane DM 28, 2 membranes

QUME: High-Res QL-Emulotor for Mego STE and TT (up to 1024x800 pixels ond more. DM 499,
EXTENDEDA: Ql-Emulotor for 260ST, 520ST/STF/STFM, 1040ST, Mego ST (not STE!) DM 289,
EPSON HD-Disk drive1,44MB (con be used to replace old 720k drives to 1,44MB on most ATARI
ST/STE/TT) DM 69,- AJAX HD-Floppy Disk Controller DM 59,- (QMAKE Upgrade from prev. Versions
High-Resolution mouse with real microswitches for ATAR! (and QIMI) DM 39,- pene} Upgrade from V1
QMenu Upgrade from any Version ;
SMSQ/E V2 ae
e EPROM Manager Upgrade from any Vers. DM 16,-
S$84SQ/E updates ore free, just send master disk(s) & return postage or use the free mailbox update | QD Upgrade from V7
service! Albin Hessier gave his kind permission to bundle SER Mouse with every SMASQ/E for the
GoldCard and SuperGoldCard. This oppiies to free updates too. The manual is now Revision 3 -
including the SER Mouse documentation and all the changes so for. A new manual costs DM 16,-
QMON/JMON Upgrode from V2.0

psa /JMON Upgrade from iON DM 32,90
New Operaing System - y QSpread Update IOS ny eee

& Multiple, fast BASICS
4 Flexible Level 3 Drivers
HO Disk-dive support (STE/TT) A on aie
Tira RAM sport _| EW__D Arcanoid {acsoet 4 DM 35,90
Monochrome Screen-<rver ; (Action!) DM 35,90
(5 various gomes) DM 90,~
(Strotegy) DM 45,90
(Strotegy)
(Chess)
(Tetris)
|As a special bonus (we know that many users own more than one system), we offer the version of an (6 Cord games)
additional system 33% more. This also apples to the upgrades, eg. DM 66.56 instead of DM 50-, which, we Lanely Saher V2 Upgrade from V1
think is very far (it just covers extra disks and manuals). Kew Samet
If you 7>quire more information about any product, then clsese write for a free catalogue!
UPDATES

Postage and package (Europe) DM 14,- (if total value of goods is up to DM 50,~ Updotes of our softwore ore usually free. The exception: mojor
then only DM 9,-). (Overseas) between DM 14,- (1 item) and DM 35, (maximum). orgs on o progrom (o new Verion number before te
|All prices incl. 15% V.AT. (can be deducted for orders from non-EEC-countries). wr encnor leg Coupons ter hs ae are ta
E&OE. Cheques in DM, £’s, Eurocheques and Credit Cards accepted. more. If you send updotes together with o software order, then

the return postage is covered by the wholesale postage. If o
disk is foulty, odd 1 IRC for o replacement. As the software
chonges from time to time, you may order @ new manuol to
gether with the disc update. With upgrades, you automatically
get o new manuel.

\__gunocano.

Independent QL Users Group

The Largest Computer Club in Europe.
Now in our 12th Successful Year.

Worldwide Membership.
Formed in 1984, QUANTA ( The QL Users ANd Tinkerers Association ) has
endeavoured to promote the Sinclair QL Computer and more recently its many
offsprings but essentially the “QDOS” operating system as devised by Tony Tebby.

There is a large and growing, sophisticated, supply of software which seeks <0
take advantage of the many benefits offered by QDOS, SMSQ etc., such as
Multitasking, a recent arrival on the PC but a part of QDOS for over 10 years,
the Pointer Environment and the many advantages of 32 bit computing.

It is the perfect environment for the “Hobbyist” Computer User who will
recognise immediately the many advantages once he has been introduced to Quanta
and it doesn’t matter whether he is biased in favour of Software or Hardware,
the scope is enormous.

QUANTA maintains a library of 80 plus disks, mostly full, which is free to
members and still growing. We also run “Workshops” so that members can meet one
another and a great time is had by all. Pherhaps the greatest achievement QUANTA
can boast about is the ease with which you can make friends and obtain help.

To misquote Isaac Newton, “If we have seen anything it is by standing on the
shoulders of others”

UK Members £14.00 Overseas Members £17.00
Payment, in Sterling, by cheque drawn on a UK Bank, Money Order or Credit Card,

Send to our Membership Secretary:

Bill Newell
213 Manor Road
Benfleet
Essex

SS7 4JD
Tel. (01268) 754407

Sinclair

QPAC2 for Starters

Yate. Bristol. UK - Stuart Honeyball

If you are one of those people who have purchased QPAC2 but have never actually used it then this is for you
QPAC2, Tony Tebby’s QL Pointer Accessories, is a marvellous piece of software giving the QL a powerful front
end but there are 2 obstacles in the way of getting started with it and they are the impenetrable manual and the
lack of an introductory "Boot" program on the master disk. This article will hopefully show you how to construct
a suitable "Boot" program which can be experimented with to customise it to your own requirements. In the
interests of brevity in depth explanation will be avoided.

You need to have Toolkit II so if you're using a TRUMP CARD, GOLD CARD, SUPER GOLD CARD or QXL
then you've got it. SMSQ/E also contains Toolkit II. All POINTER ENVIRONMENT programs, of which
QPAC2 is one, need to have the files "Ptr_Gen" (Pointer Generator), "WMan" (Window Manager), and
“Hot_RExt" (Hotkey Resident Extensions) linked in. All these items are best viewed as being extensions to the
operating system.

Firstly, make a run time disk by putting the master QPAC2 disk in "Flp2_" and a FORMATited disk in "Fip1_"
and entering the following:

TK2_EXT

WCOPY "Flp2_" to "Fip1_"

It will ask you, for each file, whether you wish to copy that file. Answer 'y' (yes) for the 4 files "Ptr_Gen",
"WMan", "Hot_RExt" and "QPAC2" and ‘n’ (no) for the rest. It should be noted that file names are case
independent and so "ptr_gen" is the same as "Ptr_Gen", etc.. When this is done the QPAC2 master disk can be
stored away. Check that the files have been copied by doing a directory of the disk: e.g. DIR "Fip1_”

We can now start contructing the "Boot" program. Assuming the drive you normally use for loading up programs
is "Flp1_" then the following will link in the operating system extensions:

100 PrgS="Fip1_”
110 TK2_EXT

120 LRESPR PrgS&"Ptr_Gen"
130 LRESPR PrgS&"WMan"
140 LRESPR PrgS&"Hot_RExt"
150 HOT_GO

160 LRESPR PrgS&"QPAC2"

SMSQSE users should leave out lines 110 to 140. Type in the above program and SAVE it by entering: SAVE
"Fip1_Boot" and then RUN it.

The HOT_GO command in line 150 starts the "HOTKEY" task going. The reason why the LRESPR in line 140
does not do this for you is to take into account users without Toolkit Il.

What QPAC2 gives you are some memory based objects which Tony Tebby has imaginatively named ‘Things’
and the ability to generate ‘Buttons’. The Things supplied in QPAC2 are of the executable variety and are a bit
like executable programs but instead of being loaded from disk and run they reside in memory and are executed
there. Buttons take the form of small windows on the screen which have some action associated with them e.g.
selecting a task, starting a program, etc..

A Thing can activated using the EXEP command. Try: EXEP "Exec"

A menu will appear on the screen listing the executable things available. There is also a pointer which can be
moved around using the arrow keys. Move the pointer around until the "Pick" option is selected. There are 2
ways of activating this: 1) 'Hit’ it by tapping the space bar or, 2) 'Do' it by tapping the enter key. The QIMI, Albin
Hessler or Super Hermes mouse can also drive the pointer; ‘hit’ with the left hand button and ‘do’ with the right
hand button.

11

QPAC2 for Starters - (cont'd)

Remember, if you wish to go to heaven then: To ENTER, DO RIGHT. Try hitting it. The “Pick” menu appears
listing all the jobs currently running quickly followed by the "Exec" job putting itself back on top. Move the
pointer around until it is over the "Pick” window (not the “Pick” option of the “Exec” menu). It will turn into a
padlock meaning that the window is not ready for input. Hit on this and the “Pick” window will be brought to the
top. Put the pointer over "SuperBASIC” and do it. The “Pick” job quits and "SuperBASIC” is brought to the top.
Familiarity with the Things is best achieved by experimentation with perhaps the odd glance at the manual.

The HOTKEY System 2 replaces the Toolkit II Altkey system. It allows a single keystroke (i.e. holding the ALT
key down and tapping another key) to do something fairly powerful. A useful function is HOT_PICK. This
allows a Hotkey to pick a job rather like you can do using the "Pick" Thing (or even repeated CTRL-c presses).
To set up a Hotkey you need to give the function the key name and the job name. Note that HOT_PICK is a
function; the value it returns is the error number which will hopefully be 0 indicating no error. A special
procedure has already been added to the operating system to print out the error message if there is one and is
called ERT. Add this line to the program:

170 ERT HOT_PICK("

rai

This will let the key press Alt-b pick "SuperBASIC”. "SuperBASIC"” is a special case and has the name "" (the
null string). You could assign a Button to this Hotkey by:

BT_HOTKEY "b"

which would provide a suitable Button but it would be more useful to have "Alt-b:SuperBASIC" written in it as a
useful reminder of the corresponding Hotkey. To do this, add this line:

180 BT_HOTKEY "b","Alt-b:SuperBASIC”

Things are best selected using HOT_WAKE and their corresponding Buttons created by BT_WAKE. There are
several Things to set up so a procedure is the best way so add the following lines:

190 DEFine PROCedure SetUpButton(HotKey$,ThingS)
200 ERT HOT_WAKE(HotKeyS, ThingS)

210 BT_WAKE Thing§$,"Alt-"&HotKey$&":"&ThingS
220 END DEFine SetUpButton

230 SetUpButton "c", Channels”

240 SetUpButton "
250 SetUpButton "
260 SetUpButton "h",”

270 SetUpButton "‘ "Hotkeys"
280 SetUpButton "j","Jobs”
290 SetUpButton "p","Pick”
300 SetUpButton "r","Rjob"
310 SetUpButton "s","Sysdef”
320 SetUpButton "t","Things”
330 SetUpButton "w","Wake"

There is another useful Thing called "Button_Pick” which brings all the Buttons to the top. It is customary to
assign the Hotkey "." to this as follows:

340 ERT HOT_THING(".","Button_Pick")

This allows you to press Alt-. at any time to get all the Buttons on top. There is another useful procedure
HOT_DO which effectively presses a Hotkey for you. Usually, when a job is started the cursor goes to that job
and the initiating job has its windows made inaccessible e.g. attempts to PRINT will just stop the program. It is
sometimes necessary to add the command:

12

QPAC2 for Starters - (cont'd)

HOT_DO "b”
to get control back to SuperBASIC. Add the line:
350 HOT_DO ”."
so that you are presented with all the Buttons after the boot up.

That's it! Make sure that all the numbered lines above are typed in correctly and SAVE it as "Flp1_Boot”. Having
SAVEd it, reset the computer and let it boot up. You should be presented with a lot of Buttons. Move the pointer
over any one you like and Do it. Alternatively, hold down the ALT key and tap the appropriate key as indicated
in the Button. To get the Buttons back type Allt-. (i.e. hold down the ALT key and tap "."). To achieve Alt-. ona
mouse you tap both left and right buttons simultaneously.

As a postscript here are the lines necessary to add "Xchange" to the system. It is assumed that "Xchange" is
already on the floppy disk in question:

360 EXEP PrgS&"Xchange","P",300
370 ERT HOT_PICK("x","Xchange")
380 BT_HOTKEY "x","Alt-x:Xchange”
390 HOT_DO ".”

In line 360 the "P" tells the operating system that it's an awkward Psion program and the 300 asks it to restrict its
memory requirement to 300Kbytes. Note that line 370 assumes that "Xchange" gives its name as "Xchange" to
the operating system. This is true for the version 3.90 (modified by Erling Jacobsen). Other programs may not be
so accommodating. Hint: to find out the name of a job, get it executing and then use the "Jobs" Thing.

For reference, the versions of the programs used to verify this article were:

Ptr_Gen V1.64
WMan V1.48
Hot_RExt V2.27
QPAC2 V1.35

MUENCHEN MEETING

Yate, Bristol. UK - Stuart Honeyball

23 SEPTEMBER 1995: This was yet another well attended QL meeting in Germany which yielded some
surprises, not least of which was the hotel in which it was held. The hotel management had evidently learnt their
trade from Fawlty Towers. Tony Firshman and I arrived there on the Friday morning and it took a while trying to
find someone. Eventually we found the manager's grandmother who seemed to want to refuse to have anything
to do with us. After some meaningless discussion she suddenly snatched the bit of paper | was holding right out
of my hand but, alas, this did not signify progress. Fortunately her grandson tumed up and we were able to sign
in. It was suggested to her that she should show us to our rooms. The next thing we knew she was running up the
stairs yelling at us to hurry up and follow her. Before I had time to put on my rucksack, complete with its 25kg
contents, she was out of sight. I threw the rucksack on and chased after her catching up just in time. Phew!

At the meeting Zeljko Nastasic was showing a monochrome LCD screen driven by the QL. This is his first
tangible step towards a truly portable QL and was quite impressive. There was also a Dutch representation with
the Primus which is a QL compatible built into a 19 inch rack. Tony Firshman was taking orders for the SUPER

13

Muenchen Meeting - (cont'd)

HERMES and was demonstrating the multitasking nature of the QL. He had a temperature sensor connected to
the 12C Analogue to Digital Converter he sells which is connected to the Minerva MkII. When the meeting
opened it was 20.5C but a few hours later it was 24C which proved that the meeting hotted up. Jochen Merz was
selling his comprehensive range of software and was demonstrating some of it ona high quality 30kg (17 inch)
monitor. Quanta was ably represented by John Southern.

Pride of place though must go to Marcel Kilgus. He is a teenager who has written a 68000 emulator to run on a
486. He had also "borrowed" Minerva and Toolkit II from his QL (tut tut) and was able to demonstrate it running,
various QL programs which it did handsomely. The emulator occupies 40K and on a 33MHz 486 runs slightly
faster than an unexpanded QL. This might not sound much at present, but bear in mind that by the year 2000 the
average PC will be running a 300MHz Pentium Pro so this sort of emulator could beat the QXL's 68040.
Definitely a promising technology buts needs a legal operating system.

QL users came from Croatia, Austria, Switzerland and England as well as Germany and everyone had an
enjoyable time. Thanks must go to Friedemann Oertel and Peter Blaha who overcame the challenge of
communicating with the hotel management and organised an excellent meeting.

A Comment from the Publisher

This issue like the last one has been delayed due to the lateness of articles and advertisements. This is very
strange to us. In the past four and one half years it was never a problem. Please. PLEASE, send in your articles
and adverts by the deadlines listed on page 2 of every issue. With your co-operation this will be the last issue
with so few pages and hopefully, the issue will arrive at your home in a timely manner.

TF SERVICES

_____s superHermes

Hermes co-processor solved the major problems of the QL
co-processor. superHermes does this and adds the
following, all on a quality circuit board not much larger
than the original 8049:

+All Hermes features (working serial input/ existing QL
keyboard improved and debounced/ key click/ independent
ser1/2 input) plus full 19200 throughput on ser1/2 input not
affected by sound

- IBM AT compatible keyboard interface, configurable for all

countries

- HIGH SPEED RS232 serial port (SER3) for full
throughput with hardware handshaking from 1200 up to
38400bps. Higher rates possible with reduced throughput
and short cables. DTR/DSR/DCD signals provided.

+ THREE low speed RS232 inputs from 1200bps down to
30bps (eg serial mouse/RTTY)

+ Capslock/scroll lock LED connector

+ Turbo connector. IBM style panel/led can be controlled
externally or by QL

+ Keylock connector - to lock IBM/QL keyboard and mouse

—

14

Holly Corner, Priory Road, Chave:
Tel: (+44) 1344-890986

+ 1.5k user data storable in EEPROM (Electrically erasable
non-volatile memory)
+ Plug connectors on pcb for all relevant features

All this is made possible by the high speed RISC
co-processor (PIC 17C42)

Fitting is a simple job - simply remove the top of the QL (8
screws) & replace the IC marked ‘8049’ or Hermes next to
mdv1l. Can be fitted to bare boards & is especially suitable
for QL boards in IBM PC style cases. QL control software
is provided.

Cost (incl manual & software) .....£92(£87)[£90]
Capslock/scroll lock LED with plug ... £1.50(£1)[£1.50]
Allowance for Hermes upgrade (send IC only) £10
|Open ended connectors (socket & 12"

[Complete 12° connector assemblies
(specify if pane! mounting:

Kybd (to DIN sck).....£3.50(C3){£3.50)
|SER3 (to 2SD plug) .....£4.S0(£4){£4.50)
Ser mouse (to 9D plg)...£3.S0(£3)1£3.50)

Prices incl AIRMAIL post/packing. Prices are: EC except UK (Europe outside EC)

foutside Europe}. Ring for UK prices or see Quanta. Payment by Mastercard/
‘Visa/Access/£ cheque/UK postal order ot CASH! ‘Send IRC for full list and details.

Down, ASCOT, Berks, SLS 8RL

Fax & BBS: (+44) 1344-890987

Amelia lowan Old 1 Style BREMEN E BREMEN BOLD

Caslon Oper

Revival 56:

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ET A collection of 100 high

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Old Dreadful No.7 Goudy soudy Old Style Freeform 721 Dem Casual Amerigo Carmina Italic,

Kuenstler, 480 AT af Goudy Handtooled

wee —e— ion Bodoni

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qudllity Bits tpa fonts ie Bold
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retommnn One cya onsen eins 501 Allegre

With LINEdesign, you can create artistic

drawings, technical drawings, process

bitmaps (even scale and rotate them!), and

any kind of vector drawings. You can draw

lines, curves, circles, ellipses, pies, squares,

© pe) rectangles, rectangles with rounded corners,
ea) and any combination of these to create the

most fabulous drawings ever seen. Because

LINEdesign is a vector drawing program,
any part of the picture can be moved,
scaled, rotated, slanted without any loss of
precision or resolution. In LINEdesign,
pictures are device independant, meaning
that the printout will be the same on any
printer (e.g. same size and position).

Also LINEdesign is good at handling text.

You can easily put titles and full paragraphs

a the page. You can choose from a large
by variety of fonts (you get 130 with the
program), and they can be displayed at any
size, rotation, etc. If the fonts which are
given with the program are not enough for
you, there is a special program to convert

Adobe Type 1 fonts for use by LINEdesign

(pfb2pff).

LINEdesign is a drawing program, but it can
also be used by people who are not good at
drawing. LINEdesign is a great program for
making leaflets, posters, and any kind of
printed work. To add a graphical touch, you
get about 150 clipart pictures, including
banners, borders and general purpose
drawings. LINEdesign will reproduce

ling at the highest possible quality !

LINEdesign is delivered with an extensive
manual, which includes a full printout of all
the fonts and the clipart given with the
program.

PROforma is a vector graphics library. It is

very powerful, and can hed used for any

application which needs high quality output.

PROforma is used by LINEdesign, PFdata

and PFlist to produce the output. PROforma

supports black and white vector graphics

and includes :

* clipping paths

* transformation matrixes

* grayshades, (thick) lines and bezier curves

* filling using even odd and winding rule

* vector (outline) fonts, which can be used in

any size. Hinting is used to make sure small

fonts look good.

* true WYSIWIG. PROforma can generate

output for screen and printer, and the output

will be exactly the same on both (with any

difference due to difference in resolution).

* bitmaps. Although PROforma is a vector

graphics library, you can include classic

peshirced so you can still use your old
ics.

BROforma (API) package is supplied with a

comprehensive manual and examples.

Never before has it been so easy to create,
fill in and maintain your personal databases. |
To start a new file, just type the names of the
pele To eae or delete a field, bid peor
just do it. To change the name of a field, just!
© ped indicate it. ” ;
LT What's more you can choose to look at only|
those fields you want, and in any order you
specify. And you can select which records|
gs want to view, and which not.
batAdesign allows you to have some
hidden comments for each record, have al
general look at the file (in tabulated form) or|
to transfer a record into the scrap or hotkey}
buffer, so you can easily import a record in
your favorite word processor or editor !
Security is a strong point for DATAdesign.|
Usually files will be memory based, for|
maximum speed. Files can also be disk’
based, making sure all changes are|
immediatly stored on disk, so even in the
event of a power failure, you can at most
lose the changes to one record !
Naturally, DATAdesign is good at sorting and
searching. And if you were using another
database, you can convert Archive or|
Flashback files to DATAdesign.

Using the API, programmers can unleash
the real power of the DATAdesign engine,
getting a relational database with a bonus,
you don't even need a key field. The API
gives you a unique and powerful record at a
time data manipulation extension to the
lanquage you already use.

Interesting program for all DATAdesign|
owners, to create hardcopy of your
DATAdesign files using PROforma. You can)
use a large selection of fonts, in any|
requested size. Also LINEdesign pictures}
can be included to add logo's, boxes, etc.
Several records can be printed on each
page...

Easy to use program to create listings on
any printer (especially inkjet and laser). Can)
include a footer with filename and filedate,
always allows perforation of your pages. The|
font and fontsize can be chosen (PFlist uses
PROforma). PFlist can create your listings in|
two columns, and in landscape (or both).

API

DATAdesign

a

PFlist | PFdat

LINEdesign 5000 (4350) DATAdesign 3000 (2700)
fontpack 4000 (3520) DATAdesign api1000 (930)
PFlist 1000 (930) | PROforma api 5000 (4350)
PFdata 1000 (930) —_pfb2pff 3000 (2700)

All prices are in Belgian Francs (BEF), and include
stage and packaging. Prices in brackets for outside|
pees All goods should be paid when ordered. You can
pay by EuroCheque in BEF, transfer to our postal account
fo0o-1612119-76) or VISA / EuroCard / MasterCard. For
payment with credit card, specify name of cardholder,

Ifb2, off Tris program allows you to convert Adobe
PIT Type 1_pfo fonts for use by PROforma.

cardnumber and expiry date. Phone orders are excepted)
when paid with credit card.
For updates and upgrades, call about details.

Professional & Graphical Software

Haachtstraat 92, 3020 Veltem,

Belgium, tel/fax (016) 48 89 52

WAGE RATERS

Scanned Clipart 1&2
Vision Mixer 1
Image Processor
Convert-PCX

The Clipart

The Painter
QRactal

ST-O-OL

3D Terrain

Quick Mandelbrot 3
Image-D
Sidewinder Plus QL
Open World

TEXT

Banter

Sidewriter

DeskJet AS

Quick Posters

Text87 Plus4

2488 printer drivers

Typeset94 Deskjet driver for Plus4
Fountext94 + Founted89 for Plus4
Publisher Pack driver for Plus4
(Drivers for use with Linedesign 2)

UTILITIES

Screen Dazzler

Dev Manager
Screen Snatcher
Super Disk Labeller
The Cat

QL-PC Fileserver I
Files 2

TaskMaster
TaskMaster Hard disk
Spellbound
Spellbound S/E
Cueshell

4Matter
Locksmithe

Toolkit 2 (disk)
Floppy Disk Utilities
Disk Mate 5

5 Game Pack

Grey Wolf

Open Golf

Return to Eden

Quiz Master 2

The Fugitive

Fleet Tactical Command II

GRAPHICAL

GAMES/SIMULATION

Quo Vadis °Barceninc Mens”

57 Shaftesbury Road, Romford,
Essex, RM1 2QJ, UK.

Tel/Fax: (01708) 755759

FTCII Data Print Utility
Flightdeck £15
Spectrum Emulator ZM/128 £28

Spectrum Emulator ZM/HT £40
PROGRAMMING
Basic Reporter £10
QLiberator V3.36 £50
QLiberator budget version £25
QLOAD & QREF £15
Resident Program Manager £10
EASYPTR 3 Part 1 £40
EASYPTR 3 Part 2 £20
EASYPTR 3 Part 3 £20
DISA 2 £40
DEA disassembler £26
MasterBasic £22
Q-Library Manager £18
MISCELLANEOUS
Amd-Airplan £10
Flashback £25
Flashback S/E £40
Music Manager £12
NEWS

*** PROGRAMS SOON TO BE RE-RELEASED ***

PAGE DESIGNER 3 - This classic desktop program is
now available again. The program is fully pointer driven and
can be used with or without a mouse. The entire system is
supplied on 5 disks and includes a large manual. The price
will be £40.

QINDEX - Create indexes for text files with this pointer
driven program. The price will be £20.

P.A.Y.E. MASTER V4.2 - This is a simple to use Archive
based utility to assist small’ companies with the tasks of
handling wages, tax, national insurance etc. It is only suitable
for use in the UK. The price will be £30.

TERMS/CONDITIONS

Software is supplied on 3.5 DD disks. For software available on microdrive
see catalogue. All prices shown are in UK pounds Sterling. Software is sent
post free in the UK, overseas add £1.00 per order. Please make payments
payable to ‘Quo Vadis Design’. Payment in UK pounds Sterling currency
only, Cheques (drawn on a UK branch of a bank or building society)
Postal Orders, International Postal Orders and Eurocheques are all
accepted. Goods remain the property of Quo Vadis Design until full
payment has been received. Call or write for a more comprehensive

catalogue.

P.O. Box 7
Portslade
East Sussex
BN41 2ND
ENGLAND

sranck
QO Branch
Feeling out on a limb ?
Reach out for Q Branch

Suppliers of Quali

ty ODOS / SMSQware

Tel, 01273-386030

Fax 012 73-381577

U.K. code (44)

By

IYO OVdO 41g oy

PRICES:

£ $8.00 PAC 1 £ 20.00
BASIC £ 23.00 "AC 2 £ 40.00
TIBERATOR £ 50.00 B 2 £ 30.00
QD + QBASIC £ 75.00 ILOAD/QREF £15.00
QD + QBASIC + QLIBERATOR £ 120.00
BUDGET QUB © 25.00 DISA 2 £ 49.00
EASYPTR 3p: 1 £ $9.00 CUESi £ 40.00
EASYPTR 3 pt} £ 20.00 TERMATED: 5 3108
bia £ 24.00
£ 4200
£ 36,00
£ 32.00
£ 28.00
£ 100.00
£ 21.00 DATADESIGN £ 67.00
£ 20.00 pIDATA § 24.00
= 24.00 S = 24.00
SPREAD £ 77.00 {Otorms £ 112.00
MON IMON £ 44.00 FONTPACK — £89.00
ATADESIGN API = 24.00
pibzptt £ 65.00
£17.00 DIAMO! £17.00
£17.00 BOBS PIPES £ 20.00
£ 40.00 NG £22.00
£2800 MINEFIELD £ 19.00
£55.00 DOUBLEBLOCK § 20.00
£24.00
SMS
Gold Card / Super Gold Card version £ 90.00
Atan version(if you already have the QUMP
drivers C, D, or E) £ 90,00
Atari version (ins! drivers) £112.00
Atari Monochrome screen version £134.00
§ 90.00

pe ses
itineraries

Albin Hessler’s SERmous.
Software and Black mouse

ata budget price

We can accept cheg hing
Eurochegues

European oniery under £ 50.00add A’.
are post tree

‘Orders outside the EEC under £ 100.
orders are post free

either dwn on a U.K. bank or
00 port and packing. Orders over £ 0.00
00 please phone for postal mater. Other

Buy QPAC 2 and at least £30.00 of additional software and we will provide a
Boot file for these programs on a separate disk to run from flp1_.

See our catalogue for details.

Q's Qlipboard

Two new products have arrived on the
Q Branch desk in since our last advert.
L Dump is a screen dump facility that
give true control over the image and
can also allow the use of colour
printers ! £ 30.00
VO Toolkit is a collection of extensions
that give lots of new commands which
are accessable from both machine
code and basic. £46.00
Why not send for our catalogue ? It
contains many descriptions of the
programs available and will
automatically put you on the Q Branch
mailing list. Just send an AS envelope

with the return postage.

(EEC), Richardson & Co. sPaenaresd

Chalfont-St-Peter

SINCLAIR QL PRICE LIST Buckinghamshire, SL9 ONB

NEW TELEPHONE « FAX:01494 871319 CAR PHONE: 0850 597650

BACKUP QL WITH P.S.U. JS ROM - £80 JM ROM - £70
PART EXCHANGE ALLOWANCE - £15

Accessories

PC KEYBOARD INTERFACE, for INTERNAL FITTING, with lead to 102 KEY KEYBOARD £75.00
PC KEYBOARD, UK version, 102 key (AT) £25.00 £30.00
% BG KEYBOARD INTERFACE and KEYBOARD — REDUCED PRICES [ae ed £95.00 6.99.00
CASE and LEAD for EXTERNAL FITTING of Keyboard Interface for simpler assembly € 14.00

SERMOUSE _s-BUTTON MOUSE FOR SER2 WITH PROG & EASYBOOT DISK £ 40
1Mb, 2Mb and 4Mb

ECONOMY MULTI-COMPUTER FLOPPY DISK DRIVE

NB: 4MB DRIVES NEED GOLD CARD OR SUPER GOLD CARD
2M1b 4h1b

BEBE | _=sh2e.

£120
Liss

Ess £30
[ £68

TIDY UP YOUR QL & PERIPHERALS
TELEPHONE RE: IDE HARD DRIVES AND MINI TOWER ASSEMBLY DEALS

i £40-£150
Monitors } 2 INQUIRE FOR COLOUR AND MONO MONITORS

Microdrive Cartridges and Spares

4 New Cartridges in a wallet £ 10.00 8 prog carts for reformatting in 2 wallets £ 15.00
Plastic Storage filing box including 20 new cartridges (or 5 wallets of 4) £ 45.00
QL Psion Software V2.35 Includes Quill, Abacus, Archive, and Easel IN WALLET £ 18.00
QL Psion Software Programs € 10.00
QL power Supply Unit £10.00 QL Printer /F £27 | Membrane (and instructions) £ 9.00
TV or Network leads z QL Top & Bottom Case £ 5.00
ICs ZX 8301 £9.00 ZX8302 £3.00 8049@PC) £3.00 MC 1377 € 3.00

SERVICE eae curs E2500 S.A.E. FOR FURTHER DETAILS
Z88 notebooks and Spectrum products
| Payment terms: Delivery:
CWO or credit card i ‘
Cheques - 10 days Post UK: £5 Non-UK: £9 X

Product subject to availability, E&OE. as ae ss E
FROM NON-EEC COUNTRIES DEDUCT 10% FROM ALL PRICES

April 1995

Around the World in 80 Ways

Oak Ridge. Tennessee. USA - Doug LaVerne
Adventures with the Internet, the QL, and QTPI

INTRODUCTION: I've been around the world in 80 ways, all from the comfort of home, on my QL, all via a
modem and local telephone calls. The only long distance phone call will be to put this article on QBOX-USA
bulletin board system in Michigan (from my home in East Tennessee) for Bob Dy! to pick up.

"Around the World in 80 Ways" is simply a play on the title of the Jules Verne book about Phileas Foge’s
adventures, Around the World in 80 Days. Mr. Fogg, though, probably had to apply himself to finding 80 ways
to make his circumnavigation.

Thave:
o Chatted real-time, simultaneously with people from Asia, Europe, Canada and the US about commercial
software packages;

o Explored software libraries in Berlin and elsewhere in Europe:
© Telnetted to the WELL, the famous ‘virtual community’ headquartered in San Francisco, and sampled the
conferences and files available in their guest account;

0 Followed the America's Cup 1995 competition via the net, usually getting race results ahead of or even with
reports on the wire services;

o Spent hours browsing the now-famous World Wide Web using a character-oriented browser one hardly hears
about. I've even downloaded job announcements from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in
Vienna to a 3.5" QDOS disk in my home;

© I've used or attempted use of the famous Internet tools Archie, Gopher, and Veronica;

o I've both "lurked" and "posted" on various Internet discussion groups known as Usenet “newsgroups” (“news"
groups is a misnomer; “lurking” is staying in the background reading postings but not responding or posting
yourself);

o And I've done that mundane thing--dialed into the office over the phone lines and done work programming,
again from my QL, with QTPI's VT100 emulation. That has involved work on the output side of the
International Energy Agency's (IEA's) Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDE) and the International Atomic
Energy Agency's, (IAEA's) International Nuclear Information System US Input (note: peaceful uses only of
nuclear science and technology).

There's even a Roadmap for all this mayhem. Patrick Douglas Crispen, formerly a student at the University of
Alabama, created the enormously successful Roadmap '94 on-line workshop to teach the basics of navigating the
helter-skelter that is the Internet. Tens of thousands from dozens of countries signed up on-line for the original
Roadmap '94. Anyone is free to collect, archive, and (under certain conditions) distribute the text of the 30-plus
“maps” or lessons. They cover everything from listservs to levels of connectivity to Archie and Veronica and
Gopher to "Netiquette" to advertising on the net.

I have not, however, been successful at collecting the follow-on Roadmap '95 series, which apparently was pulled
from the server as soon as it concluded. Roadmap '94 may still be available via EM (Electronic Mail) from the
University of Alabama server. Each "map" or lesson takes no more than 15-20 minutes to read, and the
homework is minimal.

All the above has been from the comfort of home, all from my QL, all for the cost of local phone calls. So far my
only long distance costs have been calling QBOX-USA in the state of Michigan from East Tennessee.

19

Around the World in 80 Ways - (cont'd)

This has all been possible through obtaining an Internet connection through a local Internet services provider,
obtaining a comms program in the form of Jonathan Hudson's QTPI. and obtaining an appropriate cable for my
US Robotics 14.400 modem plus an appropriately configured copy of QTPI from a dedicated QL’er. He shall
remain nameless for the sake of his own privacy.

This is not a nuts and bolts or how-to article. Very likely for some readers I've already used a number of
unfamiliar terms. Bill Cable has written a good nuts and bolts and how-to series for NESQLUG.

I cannot explain everything in a limited space. I'm simply relating adventures on a QL. Some how-to could
follow ina later issue. If you are familiar with some of the net-surfing terminology related here, but in a different
environment (say at work), realize it's possible on your QL. If you're not too familiar with archie, Veronica,
gopher, EMail, browsers and the Web, realize there's a whole new world out there, and revel in the fact that it’s
accessible from your QL. What the ritzy net browsers like Mosaic and Netscape can do’, you can do most of with
a QL, QTPI, a local Internet services provider, and Lynx. (All the fancy graphics in Mosaic just slow down
getting the text from the Web).

BEGINNINGS - My Internet and other modem adventures began in August of '94 when I discovered the real
Internet. In one short time span | saw cohorts at work debut the US Department of Energy's Home Page on the
World Wide Web and I stumbled across the first Internet services provider in my area. I decided | was behind the
times and signed up for a dial-up account with US Internet, Inc.

I started out with the famous $8.95 blue-light special Everex-946 2400 baud modem and QTPI 1.35. Only later
did I graduate to a USR 14,400 fax/modem.

My response to the "Internet for Beginners” course at US Internet had been the typical computer jock’s "Neat
Toys!" reaction. In September '94 I couldn't resist sending my first international EM to come from my QL to
Johan Boman in Sweden. I said I was looking forward to seeing a report of the Scandinavian QL meeting in
IQLR and I mentioned that my dad's side of the family came from Sweden. | was thrilled to get a response all
the way from Sweden. Now long-distance EMail is routine, at home and at work.

For instance, when women from Single Booklovers write, they frequently include an EMail address. I'm
currently in touch by EMail with a lawyer from Mutual of Omaha in Omaha, Nebraska, in the middle of the US.

USENET & DISCUSSION GROUPS - My next discovery was on-line discussion groups; in this case, Usenet
"news" groups. A newsgroup/discussion group is an electronic free-for-all with participants from all over the
world lurking and posting to the group. I have both "lurked" and “posted.” One "posting" by any one of the
many individuals participating is much like what one Electronic message to QBOX-USA would be, or one EMail
on one of your systems at work.

However, that one EM-like posting goes worldwide, to every machine carrying that discussion group. (In fall of
"94 there were about 8,000 Usenet discussion groups; there are now about 15,000. US Internet carries them all).
There are of course software packages on the Internet provider's system for reading posts and (if you're brave)
responding, such as "nn" (NetNews), "rm" (ReadNews), "trn" (Threaded ReadNews), and one of the best, "tin"
(Threaded Internet News).

I subscribed briefly to the Usenet group comp.sys.sinclair. However, out of hundreds of postings I perused, only
one had to do with the QL. I unsubscribed.

At work I belong to club #5711 of Toastmasters International; I was tickled to learn of the Uesnet group
all.org.toastmasters, devoted to improving one's thinking, listening, and "speaking" abilities. It included on-line,
worldwide Table Topics, brief attempts to think and speak extemporaneously on short notice on your feet.

Caleb Burns of Oregon (US west coast), a frequent contributor to alt.org.toastmasters, posted a partially finished
speech and got suggestions for improvements from toastmasters as far away as Japan!

20

Around the World in 80 Ways - (cont'd)
Honest. I saw it all on my QL. scrolling across my Acom screen in green, white. red and black.

Other discussion groups concerned "men’s and women's issues” (soc.women, soc.men). A favorite group has
been all.comics.peanuts, devoted to discussion of the world-known, wryly humorous, philosophical comic strip
“Peanuts,” by Charles Schulz. I've just recently retrieved the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions, another Internet
buzzword) for alt.comics. peanuts and learned, for instance, the real-life inspiration of Charlie Brown's heartthrob.
the little red-haired girl, and the names of all of Snoopy the beagle’s siblings.

Date: Wed, 4 Oct 1995 23:13:24 - 0400

To: dlaverne@use.usit.net

Newsgroups: alt.comics.peanuts

Subject: (fwd) The Peanuts FAQ File - peantfaq.txt [01/01]
From: bang@wheel.dcn.davis.ca.us (Derrick Bang)

Lines: 1423

Revised September 26, 1995

1.2 Is there a World Wide Web (WWW) page devoted to Peanuts?
1.3 Do FTP sites exist where I can download Peanuts .GIF images?
1.6 Is there any great Peanuts software "out there"?

3.1 When did Peanuts begin?

3.2 Have all the newspaper strips been reprinted in books?

(etc.)

I have also subscribed to soc.culture.russia, soc.culture.bolivia, and soc.culture.caribbean, simply to "hear" people
from other parts of the world discussing issues important to them without the discussion’s being put through the
filter of US media. The discussions range from recipes to local cultures’ ability to survive encroachment from
culture of more wealthy countries to non-US politics. The tone is anywhere from calmly informative to vitriolic.

From soc.culture.caribbean I got one posting which my friend Vere Henry says is a good commentary on the
history of calypso and soca music. Vere is originally from St. John’s, Antigua, and has led all the Caribbean steel
bands in this area, including the two groups I've played with.

From sthomas@decan.gate.net Thu Dec 22 2. :28 EST 1994

Article: 10114 of soc.culture.caribbean

Newsgroups: soc.culture.caribbean

Path: news.usit.net!news.sprintlink.net! tequesta.gate.net! decan!sthomas
Subject: Re: soca music

Lines: 143

((cuts))

:I'm probably less of an expert than any of you but if you look at the origins
:of Calypso, the melody and rhythm was only a vehicle fo support the lyrics,
:which was the whole reason for calypso. Old calypso melodies were
:"recycled” over and over again with new words...

..The old formulas can be a lot of fun too especially in the "extempo" competition, where it is a requirement that
the competitors make up lyrics... the rhythm is formulaic and the emphasis is on lyrics... clever, boastful, "robber
talk", political commentary, you name it... (etc.)

Lately soc.culture.caribbean has been a source of reports which one never heard in the States of damage from this
season's hurricanes.
21

Around the World in 80 Ways - (cont'd)

Even though English is putatively "the language of the net.” postings in soc.culture.russia are often in Romanized
Russian, and soc.culture.bolivia was all in Spanish, which I currently cannot read. All from my little $99.95 QL
(Gold Card upgrade. and more). Really and truly.

WORLD WIDE WEB, MAILING & DOWNLOADING - One day at work while reading the latest printed job
postings from IAEA in Vienna (Austria, not Virginia), | discovered the postings and conditions of employment
were accessible electronically. That weekend | got onto the trusty QL, logged onto the Vienna computers, and
FTP'ed several job announcements and the conditions of employment file EMPLOYEE.COND to the US Internet
host in Knoxville. (FTP is the Internet tool File Transfer Protocol). I later learned it was even simpler to access
the job postings via the World Wide Web. The sequence became something like

Irun bootqtpi<enter>
(to bring up the QTPI phone book)
"Dial" US Internet
connect to US Internet
username:
password:
USIT% (the US Internet system prompt. The "%" tells you you are probably on a Unix system).
USIT% lynx<enter>

(US Internet Home Page displays in character-oriented form)
(enter "g"/goto)
URL to open: http://www. iaea.or.at<enter>

(The final ".at" is the ISO Country Code for Austria).

Explore the links (known as "hyperlinks") in the Web pages until you find "Job Announcements”, read individual
Announcements on your screen until you find one of interest, then hit "m" for "mail file to yourself” and give ita
valid internet address:

dlaverne@use.usit.net.

A short while later it's in my inbox in Tennessee at US Internet. I enter the EMail reader, [E]xport the mail
message to a disk file on the host, then with the command

USIT% sz filename (send from host via ZMODEM)
Lend up with a file in my QL's RAM2. I then task-switch to SuperBasic, put the RAM2 file on disk, and on a

3.5" diskette I have a permanent QDOS-format record of job announcements from overseas. The actual work is
done in seconds, far less time than it takes to describe

Position Title and Grade: P-2

Organizational Unit:

Application Development Unit Systems Development Section
Division of Scientific and Technical Information
Department of Nuclear Energy and Safety

Vacancy Notice: 95/024

Date: 21 March 1995 Closing Date: 21 July 1995
Reporting Date: as soon as possible

Duty station: Vienna

Type of Appointment: Fixed-term

Duration: Three years

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

¢..)
22

Around the World in 80 Ways - (cont'd)

Applicants should be aware that International Atomic Energy Agency Staff Members are international civil
servants. As such, they may not seek or accept instructions in regard to their... duties from any government or
authority external to the Agency...

(etc.)

All while pounding the keys of my PC-keyboard attached to a QL with a Falkenberg interface. Really.

Other World Wide Web explorations: on a non-QL machine, while digesting Mark Rosenstein’s Sailing Page. 1
stumbled across AC9S (America’s Cup '95) in December of 1994, At the time I had forgotten there was an
America's Cup coming up. When I got home, I managed to find AC9S again:

USIT% lynx<enter>
go: http://www.ac9S.org<enter>

and explored the dozens of hyperlinks. One of the links contained a signup for a mailing list for same-day race
results. | gave my US Internet Electronic mailing address, and very shortly thereafter 1 was at home on my QL.
reading the daily race results of the Defenders’ and Challengers’ Series from San Diego. This was much superior
to a two-sentence summary the next day in the local, non-sailing-oriented newspaper.

From saicwww@gecko.cerf.net

Date: Wed, 26 Apr 1995 16:56.05 -0700

From: America's Cup 95 <saicwww@gecko.cerf.net>
Reply to: raceresults@ac95.org

SAN DIEGO, Calif. (April 26, 1995) -- Team Dennis Conner beat America3 today by 52 seconds off Point Loma
after trailing at every mark, including a 4:08 margin at the last mark. Today's win gives Team Dennis Conner the
Citizen Cup and sets.up the match between Stars & Stripes and Team New Zezland’s Black Magic | for the
America’s Cup. Conner ... provided a comeback worthy of Lazarus.

Additional details will be available following tonight's press conference. For more news, photos, and video clips
please check out the web site at http://www.ac95.org. To unsubscribe...
(ete.)

I currently have a QDOS disk with about 40 files on it pertaining to AC9S races, which I converted to MS-DOS
via DiscOver and sent to my sailing and chess buddy Gordon in Minneapolis.

Incidentally, AC9S is still on line (I just flipped over to QTPI and checked), with daily weather updates from San
Diego and news bits on the next America’s Cup as it shapes up for the turn of the century.

T've also explored Web pages having to do with Civil Air Patrol, the civilian US Air Force Auxiliary, SETI
(Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), and the Foxpro IO_Address (a home page in the UK devoted to the
Foxpro database package, recently bought up by MicroSoft) and many, many other subjects. Many of my URLs
or “addresses” for Web exploration came from the Scott Yanoff Special Internet Connections List, a compilation
often cited in articles, and obtainable by subscribing to an electronic mailing list, or by FTP.

The World Wide Web is hard to define, but easy to recognize when you see it. The World Wide Web Unleashed
takes pages to try to define it. Find it and you'll recognize it.

INTERNET RELAY CHATS - Foxpro, the commercial home computer database package, has been the subject
of Internet Relay Chats (IRC’s) since spring of '95. Three individuals, Colin Keeler of South Dakota, Rick
Morley of Atlantic City, New Jersey, and myself were instrumental in getting the Fox IRC’s started, talking them
up on the Foxpro listservs, researching how and where to get an IRC client, etc. Malcolm Pitcher from UK,
various people from Nova Scotia and others worldwide pitched in.

23

Around the World in 80 Ways - (cont'd)

Most of the initial legwork was not on the QL: rather, it was on That Other Type Small Computer. at work,
However. | particularly remember one IRC scheduled for 8pm EDT on a Monday. when I certainly was not at
work, wherein I had scrolling across my Acorn screen <Jeff_B> from Hong Kong, <Malc> from UK, <Jerry_R>
from Nova Scotia, <PatB> from Florida, <Cindy_G> from Maryland, perhaps <ColinK> from South Dakota.
<Rick> from New Jersey, and others--all simultaneously.

For those of us in Eastern Daylight time it started at 8pm, but for <Jeff_B> it was already 8am tomorrow.
<Malc> in UK went in to work in the wee hours of the morn and fortified himself with coffee. We all said our
hellos, IRC’ed, and said our international goodbyes. And yes, it's possible to have half a dozen different
conversational threads on-screen al once.

And my home screen looked like (these are excerpts from the original chat log, not necessarily consecutive in the
original):

[DougL] Jerry: of course, not thinking fast.

<Jerry_R> The last IRC chat didn't require kicks or bans tho

[Malc] We're too civilised

[PatB] no we're not! :)

<Jerry_R> for example /ban #msvfp *!*goof@*.foo.bar

[DougL] I have my pinky raised as I lift my teacup <g>

[SERVER] Jeff_B!jeffbhav@202.66.32.1 has joined this channel

[Malc] Pat: True - but (over in the UK) a standard spec is probably 486 66 with 4-8Mb, not enough for Win9S
(Jeff_B] Hi!

[PatB] do you think Win95 will be bundled on systems as Windows 3.xx is today??
[DougL] hi Jeff

[Malc] Hi there.

[PatB] Malc: why so far behind??

[DougL] Where are you Jeff?

[Jeff_B] Hong Kong.

[Malc] Jeff: What time is it there?

[Jeff_B] 8:23 Tuesday moming.

[SERVER] Rick ... has joined this channel

{[Malc] I've got to get some caffeine (falling asleep)--back in a mo!

<Jerry_R> <--Nova Scotia

[DougL] ire does sort of erase time zones.

[Rick] Anyone: re the seek vs. locate threads going on... anyone use a browse for 'this and that’ for searches?
<Jerry_R> I did for an app last year - the user wanted to be able to search on any combination of all fields in a
database in one sweep

[Malc] Jeff: Thus: <a href = "mailto:mpitcher...."> mpitcher ... </a>

[Rick] Doug: has Colin been by?

[DougL] Rick: haven't seen/heard him.

(Jeff_B] Has anyone run the Beta Visual Foxpro on BETA of Win9S?

[Malc] I've got a copy Windows V1.2 on my shelf - any buyers?

[Malc] On 160K 5.25" disks!

[DougL) tuppence?

(Jeff_B] Antiques fetch good prices

<Jerry_R> antiques like my current computer

[DougL] Jerry: 286? 386? Would you believe a Sinclair QL, BTW?

[Malc] Doug: Done!

[DougL] Male: thanx. Could you xfer that to QL-formatted disks, please?

[{Malc] Doug: First thing in the morning.

[SERVER] CindyG ... has joined this channel.

[CindyG) Evening all. Hi Doug

[Jeff_B] Hi Cindy.

24

Around the World in 80 Ways - (cont'd)

<Jerry_R> ... VBUNS! Visual Basic Users of Nova Scotia.

{DougL] Jerry: and what are you going to call the Pascal folk in NS? Sorry ... :-)
[Jeff_B] How about User Interface Designs for Visual Foxpro for the next [chat]?
[Malc] Or RBase?

[CindyG] Has anyone worked with Delphi? Specifically getting it to read a Foxpro .dbf?

(etc.)

GOING TO THE WELL - One evening after having read part of Howard Rheingold’s The Virtual Community, |
telnetted to the WELL, the famous "virtual community” centered in the San Francisco Bay area. (The WELL is a
central subject of Rheingold’s book). I browsed their “conferences” available through the "guest account” and
logged off. All for a local phone call from my QL and modem. .

That was probably winter of '95; this fall I tried again just to make sure I still remembered the host's address
(really difficult):
USIT% telnet well.sf.ca.us<enter>

Telnet effectively logs you onto the remote computer in question, in this case a computer known as
"well.sf.ca.us” (also known by a four-part number).

This last time I downloaded the WELL file "What Is the WELL" by giving a valid Internet EMail address to the
WELL computer and requesting the file be sent. Then it was another export from mail and

USIT% sz 100_What_Is_The_WELL?<enter>
and I soon had information on the WELL on a QL 3.5" disk.

WELL stands for Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link. The Internet Unleashed says WELL was founded in 1985 and
grew out of practices and concepts promoted by Whole Earth publications of Sausalito, California. Rheingold is
(or was) a prolific author on hi-tech issues and a heavy participant in WELL conferences. It's an even bet he had
a hand in the "What Is the WELL" file, which gives some information beyond what Unleashed has.

GOPHER, VERONICA, AND ARCHIE - These are Internet tools, not comic book characters. Gophers use
menus to point to various files and information resources; Veronica allows searching of Gopherspace (a subset of
Cyberspace) by keyword searches. Archie allows searches of Cyberspace for specific filenames.

I crawled through various gopher menus, starting on the US Internet System, to find the famous University of
Minnesota Gopher (and MINITEX Veronica Service, one of the best Veronicas I've found). I tried doing a
netwide Veronica search on the keyword “algorithms.” However, a 14.4 modem apparently just isn't up to the
job; gopher or some part of the whole attempt timed out. Previous Veronica attempts of mine had been on the
local community college's equipment. Their "weak link”, a S6kbps line, was considered a bottleneck at the time.

I did succeed once, as I remember, in doing an archie search netwide for copies of the Mosaic Web browser. You
know -- that browser that runs on Those Other Machines one hears about.

MISCELLANEOUS - I am learning some Unix while hooked up to US Internet via QTPI. When I'm on their
system, my QL is essentially a terminal hanging off a Unix system. I grab Reichard & Johnson's Teach Yourself
UNIX and go through a chapter.

I've tried to get on some of the chess servers listed in the US Internet menus, but to no avail (always busy). I
registered with "elib" software library in Berlin, a massive collection of algorithms, software and test packages
with links to other large software libraries.

There are too many goodies out there to go over them all. Oh, and did I mention I found them all from a QL?
For the cost of local calls. Honest.
25

Around the World in 80 Ways - (cont'd)
SOME REFERENCES
Baczewski, Philip, etal. The Internet Unleashed. Sams Publishing. Indianapolis. IN. 1994. 1387 pp.

December, John; Randall, Neil, et_al. The World Wide Web Unleashed. Sams Publishing, Indianapolis. IN.
1994. 1058 pp.

Gilster, Paul. The Internet Navigator, 2d ed. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York. 1994. 590 pp.

Reichard, Kevin, and Johnson, Eric F. Teach Yourself... UNIX, 2d ed. MIS Press, New York. 1992. 324 pp.

Rheingold, Howard. The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. Holt-Rinehart (1994) &
Addison-Wesley (1993). 325 pp.

QL Pente - A Review

Huber Heights, Ohio, USA - Tim Swenson

Besides computers, board gaming is one of my other hobbies. My interest goes the full gamut of board games,
from hex-based war games to the abstract games, such as Othello or Kensington.

I've liked Othello and even played it on the QL. But, it was a little too simple. Then I ran across Pente. Pente
had just the right complexity, yet was simple and elegant.

Pente was invented by Gary Gabrel in 1973 as an extension to the game Go-muko. By adding one rule, the
capture rule, the game Pente as created. Yet, the addition of that one rule, added complexity to the more
simplistic Go-muko, changing the basic strategy. Pente reached it's peak in popularity (and sales) during the
mid-80's. It's bright, shiny stones and classic looking board added to it's popularity. This is about the time |
picked it up.

Since I've always had problems arranging playing time with opponents, I try to find computer versions of board
games so | can play against the computer whenever I had free time. I've been doing this for years with Othello,
but not Pente. Well, now there is a version of Pente for the QL, and it's even Pointer driven.

QL Pente is written by Jerome Grimbert of France and is freely distributable (freeware). The game allows one or
two players, with the computer playing the opponent in the one player game. It is written under the Pointer
Environment (PE) and supports the typical PE options, such as sleep, move, and resize. There is a button for
information about the program, a button for changing the number of players, and one rather odd button. The
button looks like a computer chip, a question mark, an exclamation mark, and some other item all in one button.
Since the program does not come with any documentation I've worked figured out that the buttom tells the
computer to make the next move, no matter who's turn it is. If you keep clicking this button you can get the
computer to play against itself.

Even though the program does not come with documentation it is fairly easy to use. You first must know the
tules of Pente, then you must know the Tournament rule of Pente. It's an additional rule that says the first player
must make his 2nd move no closer than 3 intersections away from the center of the board (the first mandatory
move). The program will not let you break this rule. So what you think is a valid move using the basic rules is
invalid in this game.

As for knowing the rules, the program knows them all and enforces them. It does not let you put a second stone
on an occupied space (of either color). When making captures, it knows when you've made a capture and
removes the opponents pieces off the board.

26

QL Pente - (cont'd)

Since I have not played the game in a while and am not a master al the game. I could not test the full capabilities
of the computer as an opponent. As an average player. | did have to watch what | was doing. | could win some
games, but I lost some games. Only time will tell how well it plays.

The program does have a few annoying glitches. The program default is two players. You have to select One
Player hefore each game. otherwise it will default hack 10 Two Player. Once a game has started. you can't reset
the game and start over. You have to finish out the game or exit the program. This is only a problem if I've
goofed up in a game and want to start over. There is no “take-back” option in the game. If you made a stupid
move you have to live with it.

The look of the game is very good, but it's not quite up to par with a commercial game. But for a game written in
one's spare time and distributed for free. it looks good enough. I've seen some other freeware games (MineField
not included) and they looked fairly awfull. Luckily Pente does not fall in this category.

As for getting this game, if you are a Pente player, past or present, then DO get this game. If you are kind of
interested in board games, give Pente a try. You can't beat the price.

If you are interested in learning more about Pente and it's rules. THE book on Pente is "Pente Strategy” by Tom
Braunlich, the 1979-81 World Pente Champion. It covers all aspects of the game. I plan to re-read it and see
how well | can beat the computer.

QL Pente may be available on the Anon-FTP servers ftp.nvg.unit.no or maya.dei.unipd.it by the time you read
this. Or you can get it from me at the QI. Hacker's Journal. 5615 Botkins Rd. Huber Heights. OH 45424
swensotc@ss2.sews.wpafb.af.mil. I was lucky enough to be one of the first to get this game. as the author
directiy e-mailed a copy to me.

MECHANICAL AFFINITY

513 EAST MAIN 5231 WILTON WOOD CT
PERU, IN 46970 USA INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46254 USA
317-473-8031 317-291-6002

Hours 5to9 PM only Tues-Sat --FAX 317-472-0783 11 PM TO 7 AM.
Internet E-mail: fdavis@holli.com

Extra! Extra! We still hove QL Super Gold Cards_in stock, and for only $395.
By the end of the year they will no longer be produced, so now is the time to buy one. New
European laws will make them no longer available from Miracle.

We also have plenty of Used QLs and QL hardware for sale at rock bottom prices. Call or write

to find out what is still available on this. We are closing out all of our used items, only new (at
new prices) will be available after this.

Looking for new Digital Precision programs?, such as Professional Publisher, Deluxe Font

Enlarger, Adventure Creation Tool S.E., Success CPM Emulator, Super Media Manager, or
Perfection Word Processor? We have a limited supply in stock at half price! Call the Peru
number and ask for Frank for further details on these and more.

We have a limited number of Text87plus4.1 Word Processor Packages on closeout sale for

only $95. Includes dictionary and manual. This is the latest version.
27

? Town Crier Announcements
of Upcomming Events

4 November 1995 (Saturday)
International QL Meeting St Joris College
Roostenlaan
Eindhoven
(Sponsored by: Sin_QL. Air) The NETHERLANDS
11 November 1995 (Saturday)
Quanta Workshop Surrey

GREAT BRITAIN
Contact: Ken Bain
Tel: +44 01932 347432

19 November 1995 (Sunday)
Italian QL Meeting Via Fratelli Cervi 70
Reggio Emilia
Contact: Davide Santachiara ITALY

Tel: +39 522 300409

2 December 1996 (Saturday)

Quanta Workshop Romford
GREAT BRITAIN
Contact: Bruce Nichols
Tel: +44 01708 755759

QL Mini Tower System
Have your QL, Memory Expansion,
Floppy Drives, Hard Drive all placed
into a PC Mini Tower Case. Everything
runs from PC PSU, including your QL.
Turns your QL into a modern
professional looking system.

S.A.E. or LB.C. For Enquiry Form

PD & Shareware Software
Over 70 Disk's of Public Domain & Shareware Software for the Sinclair Q.L.
which includes the following:-

Psion Xchange V3.903, C68 'C' Compiler V4.14c
Molecular Graphics V3.11, GL Home Finance
LineDesign 2 Demo, MicroEmacs V3.11, XLisp V2.1d
S.A.E. or I.R.C. for Printed Catalogue of complete software Library

LineDesign 2 Clip-Art
Over 100mb of Adobe Illustrator Clip-Art files. These files will all load directly into
Linedesign 2. Various themes are catered for such as Food, Backgrounds,
Cartoons, Transport etc. S.A.E. or I.R.C. for Catalogue showing examples.

QUBIDE

QL AT/IDE Interface
Allows you to connect modern AT/IDE
Hard Drives to your QL. A massive
amount of storage space can now be
made available for your programs and
files. Compatible with SGC, GC, TC and
most memory expansion systems, also
Minerva & Hermes compatible.

£653.00p
fully inclusive of P&P (UK) ‘ 2488
+5% (Europe), +10% (Rest of World) 19-6126 4818

AT/IDE Hard Drives QUBBESoft P/D

A selection of new and used AT/IDE Hard 38,Brunwin Road, Rayne, Braintree,
Drives compatible with QUBIDE available. All Essex. CM7 5BU.

Capacities from 40mb upto 420mb. Please ring : Tel: +44 (0)1376 347852
or write for current stock availability. - Fax: +44 (0)1376 331267

WHAT WILL THE QL COLLECTION COST ME?

Just £179 in total. There is nothing to add, no hidden taxes, and P&P to anywhere on earth is
included (add £5 for Airmail). You save over £2,100. DP recognises that you probably have
some titles already (though perhaps not the latest releases), and some may not be of interest to
you yet (likely to change when you see them!) - the price reflects this! THE QL COLLECTION is
worth it even if you only want to update all your existing DP products: however, DP will continue
to accept orders for individual DP programs at the prices quoted if you really insist.

WHAT EXACTLY IS INCLUDED IN THE QL COLLECTION?

You get the fullest, very latest, most up-to-date releases of all - every single one - of the 66 QL
programs listed. The software is the finest, and the QL's very best. The titles would cost you
over £2,300 (plus applicable P&P) to buy individually - you can check this by summing the
prices overleaf, or those quoted in earlier ads. The only titles omitted are Mega Dictionary (only
for 2Mb RAM systems - add £15 for it), MS-DOS v6.22 upgrade (add £90) and any less capable
variant of a title that is itself included in THE QL COLLECTION (e.g., since the top-of-the-range
PROFESSIONAL PUBLISHER is included, DESKTOP PUBLISHER is obviously excluded).
You get both versions of PC CONQUEROR (as the list shows) so as to cater for all hardware
variations. You may never ever need to buy another QL program again. The range of software
you will get is truly staggering. It is too good to be true. But it is true - while the offer lasts....

WHAT ABOUT THE PROGRAM DOCUMENTATION?

All the latest applicable documentation (lots and lots of it) is included on disk, and can be read
and printed using Perfection Special Edition or Editor Special Edition, which are also both
included, and which can - of course - be used to search, browse, analyse or “edit” manuals at
your leisure. Printed copies may be bought later if wanted - full details are sent with the order.

WHY CAN'T | FIND THE CATCH IN ALL OF THIS?

Because there isn't any. DP, whose QL commitment continues, makes this super offer to
celebrate the birth of a marvellous baby daughter Michelle, now through all her early problems,
to Julie and Freddy. THE QL COLLECTION is licensed for use by the purchaser alone, who by
buying it agrees not to resell or otherwise pass on any part of it, or of any DP software already
possessed. Technical support is negotiable: full details are supplied with the order for you to
take up should you want to do so. DP reserves the right to withdraw THE QL COLLECTION
offer at any time later than 14 days after your receiving this magazine, so please do hurry.

WHAT HARDWARE WILL I NEED TO RUN THINGS?

You will need a twin disk drive (DD, HD or ED, 3.5" or 5.25"), lots (123?) of blank disks and
over 1.5Mb RAM (Gold Card, Super Gold Card, QXL, ST/QL and equivalents) to fully use all
the software. The vast majority of titles will, however, work on much smaller systems: earlier
DP ads indicate with precision the minimum hardware needed to run each program. If no disk
size is specified when ordering, DP will assume 3.5" DD. If you do not yet have a powerful
enough QL system, you may wish to contact a hardware dealer and buy, say, a second-hand
Gold Card and/or twin disk drive (preferably 3.5" DD or HD - avoid Mitsubishi, and if HD or ED,
ensure 100% compatibility with all Gold Cards is fully guaranteed by the supplier) as needed.

HOW CAN! GET MY COPY OF THE QL COLLECTION?

THE QL COLLECTION can only be obtained directly, by posting your order (including payment
of £179 by cheque drawn on a UK bank / building society, Eurocheque or postal order, or
quoting a VISA or MASTERCARD credit card no: and card expiry date) as soon as possible to:

DIGITAL PRECISION LTD, 222 THE AVENUE, LONDON E4 9SE

THE QL COLLECTION

QXL In Command

Bedford, Massachesetts/Plyesville, Maryland, USA
Al Boehm & Tom Robbins

IOMEGA Zip Drive:\ (Tom) recently purchased an IOMEGA Zip Drive for US $200. It connects to the
parallel port of the PC and, after loading appropriate software, functions as a 100 Megabyte removable medium
hard drive. The disks ($15 each) are slightly larger than a standard 3.5 inch floppy and come preformatted in PC
or Macintosh format.

What good is this to us QL/QXL folks? Well, the drive is "just another hard disk" as far as the QXL is
concerned. You can issue the command "FORMAT WIN2_S0" (assumming that Zip drive is your D drive in PC
land) and the QXL will happily prepare a SO Megabyte section of the drive so that you now have another 50 Mb
of storage for your QXL. The disks can be removed and replaced in the same session, although not all at once.
Now if some genius out there could write a device driver for the SuperGold Card and its parallel port.

SyQuest Drive:1 (Al) bought a SyQuest 135Mb removable drive for $200 and extra disks for $19.95. It is an
IDE device although there is also a SCSI version. I have formatted a 125 Mb QXL section on one of the disks
and it works just fine. If 125 Mb seems large, it is). My standby QL programs only take about 10 Mb. However,
if you are generating simulated SVGA cloud pictures at 120K a picture, it doesn't take long to fill up 125 Mb.

But the reason for me buying such a drive instead of another or larger fixed hard disk is worth pointing out. My
wife, my children, sometimes even their friends, use my PC. Good, that's what I bought it for. However,
Windows and even DOS allow things to be easily fouled up, particularly when there are multiple users. This has
happened several times now and once on my system at work where I am the only user. So I have my QL.
programs on a separate disk and keep it in a safe place. I keep a few of the QL programs (particularly
Xchange/Quill) on the fixed hard disk for my wife and others to use. When things go wrong, no more yelling at
the offenders, I simply copy the entire QXL file back to the hard disk.

SMSOFE: At the Oak Ridge QL fair, I purchased SMSQ/E from Jocham Mertz. SMSQ which is updated
regularly and sent free to QXL owners and SMSQ/E are parallel developments. Most of which is in one
(example SBasic) is in the other. However, SMSQ/E has additional capabilities that for me make it worth
buying. James Hunkins gave a good review in the March/April 1995 IQLR so I won't try to cover all its features
but instead show some of the tricks I have found useful. The screen resolution (QL, EGA, VGA, or SVGA) can
be changed on the fly. I can be multitasking some high resolution pictures and while writing a description of
them in a QL resolution Quill. I just DO QL and CNTL C.

The DO QL does a file named QL which consists of setting ALTKEY w to make windows #0, #1, and #2, to full
width, ALTKEY t to set windows to two columns, and ALTKEY b to rub out the entire screen. The SMSQ/E
keyword DISP_SIZE 512,256 sets the display to 512 pixels across and 256 down, in other words, a QL display.
The last line actually sets the windows:

ALTKEY 'w',,;WINDOW 512,220,0,0:WINDOW#2,512,220,0,0: WINDOW#0,512,36,0,220:
paper 2:ink 7:paper#2,4:ink#2,0:paper#0,0:ink#0,4:CLS:CLS#0’,"

ALTKEY 't',,;WINDOW 255,220,255,0:WINDO W#2,255,220,0,0: WINDOW#0,512,36,0,220:
paper 2:ink 7:paper#2,4:ink#2,0:paper#0,0:ink#0,4:CLS:CLS#2:CLS#0',”

ALTKEY 'b’,'window 512,256,0,0:paper 0:cls:window 512,220,0,0',"

DISP_SIZE 512,256

WINDOW 512,220,0,0: WINDOW#2,512,220,0,0:WINDOW#0,512,36,0,220:
paper 2:ink 7:paper#2,4:ink#2,0:paper#0,0:ink#0,4:CLS:CLS#0

Talso have a EGA, VGA, and SVGA DO files but with the appropriate pixel sizes:

whole screen Two columns
#1 and #2 #0 #1 #2 #0
QL 512,220,0,0 512,36,0,220 255,220,255,0 255,220,0,0 512,36,0,220
EGA 640,310,0,0 640,40,0,310 320,310,320,0 320,210,0,0 640,40,0,310
VGA 640,440,0,0 640,40,0,440 320,440,320,0 320,440,0,0 640,40,0,440
SVGA 800,560,0,0 800,40,0,560 400,560,400,0 400,560,0,0 800,40,0,560

31

QXL in Command - (cont'd)

To compare SMSQ versus SMSQE, I sometimes execute one, sometimes the other. But the startup boot must do
different things for SMSQ versus SMSQ/E. So far I have never had the same version number on both, so I use the
version number to differentiate:

rem QXL BOOT by A.Boehm. if ver$(-2)<2.S7 for SMSQ/E 23 Aug 1995

IF ver$(1)<2.57 then OS$='SMSQE':else OS$='SMSQ’

IF OS$='SMSQE' then HOT_GO: DISP_SIZE 640,480: KBD_TABLE US

IFO} 'SMSQ' then TK2_ext:LRESPR win1_util_ptr_gen:LRESPR win1_util_wman
DATA_USE win1_basic_:PROG_USE winl_BOOTS_

DO vga

Notice that SMSQ/E doesn't need ptr_gen nor wman; they are built in. On the other hand SMSQ/E needs to start
HOT_GO so that my ALTKEY definitions work. Note also that the last line of the boot is a DO. DOs can be
chained this way at the end but they can not be in the middle of a program since they don't know where to return
to.

TURBO and QLiberator: Stan Canton wrote in Quanta that he was having trouble compiling with TURBO.
This was surprising to me since | had TURBO compiled several thousand lines of SuperBasic on the QXL and
hadn't run into anything I couldn't work around. Of course, I didn't expect TURBO to handle some of the new
structures in SBASIC, for example, a NEXT without a label. But these were easy to understand and reconcile.
However, it appears he has a valid point, INKEYS just does not seem to work in TURBO. QLiberator handles it
OK. So the problem is not in SMSQ or SMSQ/E per se, but in the interaction. He also was having trouble with
FILL or FILLS but I was able to Turbo compile these successfully. Since Turbo's default_device will only take a
3 letter drive and all my Turbo programs are in a director ( winl_Turbo_), it may of some use to show my QXL
boot for turbo:

LRESPR win1_Turbo_turbo_tk_code

default_device 'dev3_'

DEV_USE 3, winl_Turbo_

Wish List: About a year ago, Tom and Al gave a list of the things they would like to see in the QXL.
Amazingly and with great thanks to Miracle, all but direct access to the PC files on the hard disk have come to
pass. Now we still wish for hard disk direct access, but understand the confusion of PC device drivers.
Nevertheless, perhaps a slower two stage process is possible. Have the PC part of SMSQ read part of a hard disk
file and send it to a buffer in ram. Then send that buffer to the QXL via win3_ say. CD roms in PC format and
other devices in all kinds of strange formats could easily be accessed, albeit somewhat slower then then QXL
reads QXL formatted winl_, win2_, etc.

Another wish is for more colors. It seems to me that I would be willing to have 8 or even 4 colors in each

window if I could specify what those colors were. I envision a PALETTE#2,1,109,50,221 which would set color
1 (which is blue in mode 8) in window #2 to a 24 bit color of 109 red, SO blue, and 221 green.

Telephone Number Changes

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING TELEPHONE AND FAX NUMBER CHANGES:
Albin Hessler Software Telephone: +49 (0) 7127 952890 Fax: +49 (0) 7127 952898

S.J. P. D. Software Telephone: +44 (0) 1282 701767

>>> QDOS, QL - the Future

Duisburg. GERMANY - Jochen Merz

First of all, this article describes my personal impressions - I'm not a fortune teller! Some people ask about the
future, and it's an important question. When I say QL. I mean everything which simulates the operating system of
the QL (you all know by now that my main machines are ATARIs running QDOS or SMSQ/E). when 1 say
QDOS, this includes SMSQ, SMSQ/E and Minerva, of course.

Is there a future? The answer is definitely YES! | am not planning to give up on this fascinating operating system
and there are good reasons why. Most of you know some of the reasons yourself, other’ you wouldn't be using
the QL any more. We thought that with the release of SMSQ/E a big sign saying “we carry on” would be set, and
the support and improvements on it show that we still like it and look into a long future. Now on to the reasons
why:

The first, and very important reason is "The Community”. Everyone who visited some QL shows knows what |
mean. But this has nothing with the technology to do, it is just a good reason.

Many customers use the QL in conjunction with another operating system. They do on each system what they
cannot do on the other. Users with a QL emulator in an ATARI will also use TOS, users with a QXL ina PC will
also use Windows. And there is nothing wrong. Nothing to be ashamed about. It widens your scope and, in many
respects, shows how good our system is.

Agreed, Windows programs look much better, but is the look all that counts ...? I had a look at other machine
code development systems for people who (we hope) are interested in our system. And. you won't believe it: our
development systems are much, much better than everything I found on other platforms. including Windows.
Writing in Assembler is out, the mainstream software houses don't seem to be interested in supporting peoples’
intellectual challenge on the hardware, all they want is "Users" who use the prepared software. Of course, you get
“visual” tools, which, again, look good. but are restricted in many ways. All you can do is what the designers
allowed you to do. And, they are slow too.

It is amazing how less performance you get out of PCs which, theoretically, should be SO or 100 times more
powerful and tuned in every respect compared to a QL. But a lot of this power is eaten up by the operating
systems and applications.

1 do not own a PC. For a private individual it is not necessary to have a PC, but for a company it seems to be
getting obligatory. Some suppliers do not send away printed catalogues, they send CD-ROMs. I had a look at one
of the CDs at a friend's PC. It occupies over 4MB on his harddisk, and it is not very fast to use. So, if | think I get
10 CDs from 10 suppliers, 1 loose 40MB on my harddisk. If 1 then compare the time to look up details of a
specific monitor out of 10 printed catalogues and out of 10 CDs - guess what's faster! I have probably checked 20
catalogues in the time of just 1 CD. And I can compare paper details, something which I can't do on the screen.
So, that's not really practical, it's planned to be fun (and, honestly it’s not even fun).

A good example of how bad things are is T-Online. It is a service similar to Prestel in England or Minitel in
France, the previous name was BTX or Datex-J. You can get train time tables, do your home-banking, book your
holidays etc. It is quite expensive in Germany, as you have to pay four times in total for making one call: you
have to have your telephone line (monthly charge), the call rates, plus a T-Online monthly charge of DM 8.- plus
6 Pfennings per Minute in addition to the call rates (and, if you use other services in T-Online, their charge will
come on top of these four charges). You see. not cheap. However, my bank announced that from next year on,
it would be advisable to use the system, as they will charge DM 1,- for every non-electronic transaction (i.c.
paper-based). As a bonus, every T-Online bank transaction counts as 1/2 transaction only! In the end, I'm being
forced to use T-Online for larger numbers of bank transactions.

I ordered the registration and eventually got my passcodes. To access T-Online you need some software. With the
passcodes | got a CD containing decoders. | tried to install it on a borrowed PC, without success. 1 wasted nearly
a whole Saturday without any result. Everything is automatic. You click here, you click there, you see nice
pictures, the program even tries to figure out automatically which modem is connected. Finally, it dialled, got a

33

>>> QDOS, QL - the Future - (cont'd)

connection, and automatically sent the log off string. There was no way to force it NOT to send the log off string.

I then bought a magazine with a lot of PD communication software on CD. It contained 9 (in words NINE) T
Online decoders, NONE of which worked. Two refused to run the installation program at all, three did partially
install, and the rest did not connect after installation. I do not want to get into detail, but it was unbelievable. The
worst experience was: after the automatic installation of one program everything seemed to work | entered my
secret numbers. The program did not do anything. I removed it completely from harddisk (1 thought) and re-
installed it, this time with the user-configurable information. When the registration screen appeared, it already
knew all my details!!! Where the hell did it put my secret numbers? I don't like the idea that my passcodes are
somewhere in a hidden file on a PC on loan! In the end, I gave up. After deleting all directories which were
created automatically, the harddisk was over 1.5 Megabyte less empty than before the start - no one knows which
files are related to what.

The main problem is: everything is out of control of the user. You select INSTALL, and it does whatever it wants
to do. Modify all sorts of files, copy lots of files into various directories etc. etc. - and this is one of the main
advantages of QDOS. Your BOOT is ALWAYS under your control, and the machine does not do any invisible
operations during boot. Some people think this is a disadvantage, because they think that setting up a BOOT file
is difficult. Wrong!

To get into T-Online I turned my ATARI into its native operating system and loaded a fairly old decoder, dated
1991. No fancy icons, no 256 colours, just black and white. And within less than three minutes everything
worked! | am not a big fan of TOS, ATARI's own operating system, and I do not want to reset my machine every
time | need to go into T-Online, therefore a QDOS-Decoder is now under development.

I'm not telling you that everything except QDOS is bad - that's not true. It was just a demonstration how lost you
are if things don't work as expected. Some QL users might think now: I'm lost with some QL software too. They
might feel this way, but that's not really the case. They can do the installation (if any is required) manually, step
by step. Add every required extension step by step manually and see what happens. There are lots of ways to find
out what is going wrong, because the actions are not invisible to the user, like in Windows.

Software never can be 100% perfect from the start, there are simply too many combinations possible. Even the
QL hardware allows far more combinations than suppliers could test: a QL might have a Gold Card, a Super
Gold Card, a Qubide, a keyboard interface, a SuperHermes or Hermes, Minerva etc. etc. even EPROMs
containing software put in by the user. All these items interact, and even if it is only that a simple extension shifts
the code by allocating some memory. The number of possible combinations is very, very high, as Tony said: we
have more possible combinations than customers! A PC consists of more components and every component can
be supplied by lots and lots of different suppliers - and all cards, all drives, everything behaves slightly
differently. There are probably more possible combinations of hardware than all programmers in the world could
ever test in their lifetime, as every day more and more products appear. It is already absolutely out of control!!! If
you now multiply this by the zillions of possible software configurations and program interactions and different
versions, then it is a miracle that things work at all!

The essence is: we have an operating system which is under our control. It is growing and improving. The
interaction between suppliers and users is very good, the suppliers try to fulfil user's demands and the users help
the suppliers detecting bugs - everybody is helpful! Without the effort of everyone including magazine and club
activities the QL would be dead already. Therefore, it is up to all of us to keep it alive!

When I think about the daily usage of my computer system and compare it against others, then there's only one
conclusion: there is, after more than 10 years, still no alternative choice.

>>> NOW: (After the joumey into other systems back to what we know and love.)
SMSQEE: the current version is extremely stable. No hardware-related problems anymore, the new ATARI
harddisk driver works reliable even on the 2 or 3 critical harddisks. The new QXL interface works reliable. The

number of “incompatibility” problems in SBASIC is now less than the number of requests to introduce new

34

>>> QDOS, QL - the Future - (cont'd)

features which you do not find in QL’s SuperBASIC. This means. it is now time to pul in some more extra
features - watch out!

FiFi:FiFi has been greatly improved again, some of the new features include the search for hex-strings (i.e. you
can now search for everything) and a "Space" option. This “Space” option allows you to search for ite
spaces”, i.e. an undefined number of SPACEs or TABs between words. If you want to search for. say "TST.L
DO” but you do not know if there is one space, more than one space, or even a TAB as a separator, then FiFi will
find it now! This is also useful for "manually formatted” text, i.e. where more than one space is between some
words to block-justify. Updates from any V3.xx to the current one are free!

PBOX: at the moment I am installing PBOX - Phil Borman’'s new Bulletin Board System. It will go into an
internal test phase first, then I'll have the old QBOX running at the same time as PBOX (on different lines, of
course) and if the test succeeds, PBOX will take over. | hope to provide 28.800 access at the same time of the
introduction of PBOX. But, even with a slower modem, there are many, many advantages in using PBOX. Lots
of them on the sysop side, and also lots on the caller's side: ZMODEM protocol supported, multi-language
menus, ANSI menus etc. etc. Regular QDOS+SMS Box Duisburg (0203-502013) callers will be informed via
this bbs.

QD: The current version is 8.04, Everyone who has 8.00 to 8.02 should get an update - more icons since 8.02
and more actions on existing icons! 8.04 has a highly improved help system and some new parameter string keys
- the help windows now stack properly, especially if you do help on help on help .. it's very neat in higher
resolutions. You can now define QD's window origin and size from the command line. As these features were
required for the new help, I thought they could be useful to some users.

Language dependent modules for SMSQVE: as the interest is quite big, you can now find a file
LANG_BAS (written by Tony Tebby) in the SBASIC area of the QDOS+SMS Box Duisburg, which is a fully
working BASIC program which provides a good base for creating your own keyboard tables and message tables.

?? PRIMUS ??

With the intention to develop a reliable and powerful QL compatible computer which could be used continuously
in an industrial enviorment a modular computer system has been developed. It has five main componets.

1. micro computer

2. QL compatible add on board
3. backplane with 7 slots

4. expansion cards

5. 19 inch case and power supply

1. micro computer: The microcomputer is an independent system, which can be mounted into any 19 inch
case (It measures 220x100mm). It is build fully in CMOS, therefore the power consumption is low and -- if used
ina standard themperature area -- doesn't need a fan. A 68HCOO CPU at 16MHz combined with 2 MByte static
RAM gives you necessary power. You have a LED which shows you the current state of the microcomputer
(RESET, HALT). There's a RESET key to reset the microcomputer and a HALT switch to halt the
microcomputer temporarily.

While the QL has its expansion cards area in memory from address 0C0000 to OFFFFF the Primus has its one
directly under 16MByte and it is nearly 1MByte big (from F00000 to FFBFFF). The expansion cards in this area
are recognized by the MINERVA operating system without any alternations. QDOS has to be altered slightly to
take care of the new area when searching for expansions.

The operating system, up to three QL ROM expansions and the boot loader are placed within a 128kByte
35

?? PRIMUS ?? - (cont'd)

EPROM. This EPROM can be replaced by an EPROM with a maximal size of IMByte for additional data

The boot loader loads the operation system and the QL ROM expansions into the 16Bit wide RAM. There the
CPU can acces it without any wait states. Also. while bootloading, date and time will be transmitted to the QL
clock from a real time clock. The RTC is powered by a special capacitor (0.1F) while the system is off line.

The microcomputer itself has a socked for an EEPROM (electronical erasable PROM) with a maximum size of
16kByte that can be used e.g. for important user specific data.

A watchdog timer is used to control the program flow. If the normal flow of operation is disturbed by any reason
and thus the watchdog timer is not reseted periodically any more it causes a RESET. The original program can be
restarted by your boot program.

Less important for a QL compatible system are the alterable interrupt priorities for external and RTC interrupts.
the wait states and the error handling after bus errors.

2. QL compatible add on board : The add on board (160x100mm) contains the three QL specific
components ZX8301, ZX8302, IPC 8049 plus 32kByte screen memory. The competing memory accesses of the
ZX8301 and the micro computer are controlled by a logic circuit, so any disturbances are avoided.

Three 9-pin SUB-D sockets for the two serial ports and a CGA monitor connector are connected via IDC plug
boards. In the same way connected is a 25-pin SUB-D socket for the matrix keyboard. The matrix keyboard is
used, because it allows you easily to use custom made keyboards. Such custom made keyboards can eventually
be integrated into the 19 inch case.

3. backplane with 7 slots: The buffered backplane has a total of seven expansion slots with
QL-compatible signal occupation. The slots are powered at the backplane side with +SV, +12V and -12V. The
backplane can be mounted in any 19 inch case. The bus system has all necessary signals: address lines, data lines,
DSL, RWL, DTACK, E, RESETL, EXINTL, CLK (16MHz) and FCO, 1, 2 which are sufficient for most QL.
expansions cards.

The DSMCL signal line is not used anymore and therefore not necessary anymore!!!

4. expansion cards: You can connect each QL compatible expansion card to the bus, provided it does not
need more than the signals mentioned above.

The most important expansions are controller cards for hard disk and floppy disk drives. For use with control
applications cards with analogue and digital input and output are matter of priority.

Contrary to the QL the bus has a higher phase. therefore expansion cards have to be able to treat the higher
velocity. For example the access time for EPROM's should be less than 150 ns.

5. 19 inch case: The 19 inch case gives you physical stability (compare this with a three to four feet long
QL!) and protects your Primus from environmental influences. The insertion technique simplifies the exchange of
single components, you are not forced to disassemble the whole case. A industrial power supply (as every other
component this also comes in 19 inch insertion technique) which can be powered within the range of 93V up to
264V allows you to use it everywhere in the world. A mains filter additionally takes care of an undisturbed
working condition of the system.

For additional information, please contact:

Ing. Biiro Michael Klein
Martinstrasse 23

64285 Darmstadt
Germany

QXL...at Full Throttle!

Zapresic. CROATIA - Zeljko Nastasic

After a lot of deliberation, I finally succumbed to it's allure and bought a QXL. Very strange for a QL user who
does not own a PC. And a very strange QXL as well - one which originally came without a 68040 CPU.

Well, the story actually goes in a quite roundabout manner:

My day's work involves solving many unorthodox problems, which are ‘normally’ solved by using a PC. Or, I
should say on attempt at a solution is done by using a PC. This is often very problematic, so I have resorted to my
old and trusted QL a home countless times. You would be amazed how complicated it is to write a simple
routine to control something over an RS232 port using a PC. Why do I have to wonder about the peculiarities of
this serial chip when I only want 19200 cerial comms? What's a ‘huge’ memory model? Even worse - trying to get
some graphics on a high resolution screen. Unfortunately, under the relentless pounding by ‘Do it all and even
cook coffee’ programs the exclusively PC users around me have very strange ideas how things should be solved,
they always tell me I need this or the other library and a C++ compiler, or program so-and-so, or something else
costing at least $400. PC programmers seem to have forgotten how to program anything to do with hardware.
Incidentally, if anyone is thinking of Sun workstations and similar, try grafting a piece of hardware onto one of
those. I'd be interested to hear about the results!

For years I have been telling them that ‘I only write a few lines of Basic which access this device and then with a
few simple loops and exits I do so and so on my old QL’. It took them about two months to stop laughing and
Start shrugging and they are still at it today.

Recently a problem came up requiring writing a disassembler for a rather exotic processor. I started working at it
on the QL (in SuperBasic of course), but I soon realised it was stupid to spend time at home doing my work - so I
decided to take the main QL to work with me. Unfortunately it was soon missed at home. So, I looked at the
available cash, and a 68040 waiting for some better day, both in the same drawer of my desk. A call to Miracle
solved the problem of a QL at work - I decided to buy a QXL. Something about having to get a PC sooner or
later anyway did figure in there somewhere, in a very small way. For the record, I currently have only 3 programs
which I use regularly and which work on the PC, so the sooner or later is more likely going to be later. I guess
that in the end I'll use the QXL as a reason to get a PC.

Now this is where things get interesting - the 68040 waiting in my desk was pulled out of equipment as a part of
an upgrade, and it had a very thin heatsink on it and a slightly thicker fan. It was kindly (thanks again!) provided
by a QL user who will stay anonymous lest all of the potential and existing QXL users get ideas about extorting
more from him.

The big question was what sub variant of the 68040 was it, and at what speed can it work? After a few minutes, I
managed to get off the heatsink, which was stuck onto the chip by a very peculiar metallic foil, sticky on both
sides. They say there are two kinds of glue - one that you can't stick anything with, and one that you can't get
unstuck with anything. This one was of the later kind, but using the well known force and lever principle it
surrendered, and the secrets of the chip were exposed. I read the insignia. And then I read it again. And again. No
doubt about it - it was a fully fledged 68040, floating point unit and all, intended to run at (hold your breath!) 40
MHz! If this was taken OUT as a part of an upgrade, it must have been SOME upgrade! This clearly deserved
another call to Miracle - and the answer was ‘We never tried it, but it's possible it will work at 40MHz’. That was
enough for me.

Finally, the day came and after yet another call to Miracle to fix the details of the delivery, at the International
meeting in Italy I became a proud owner of a processorless 8Mb QXL. Stuart Honeyball of Miracle was very
kind and even provided a heatsink for the 68040, which he said he got for testing, but it turned out not to be
needed. After a few words with Stuart I decided to wait until I can test the QXL at a higher clock, this was
especially hard since I needed to wait until 1 got back to work. The Italian meeting was on a Sunday, and our
two-member Croatian ‘delegation’ started back home after an excellent dinner in a pleasant restaurant, which, due

37

QXL... at Full Throttle - (cont'd)

to extremely interesting company, went on to 1AM. I drove by home at about 8 AM, taking the 40 MHz CPU for
the QXL and a few other odds and ends and went straight on to work, although I had a day off. Who cares about
sleep and days off when there's a new QXL to be installed!

This, contrary to the manual turned out not to be so simple - there was no problem putting the fast CPU into it's
socket on the QXL, and only a slight problem with fitting the heatsink onto it (whoever designed the retaining
clip?!) -it had a heatsink before, didn't it, surely it wasn't there for a free ride? - but the problem that came up was
that I actually had to pull out a board from the PC to get enough space for the QXL. It seems that PC
manufacturers have a way of constructing boards and cases such that you can never use all the slots op-che PG
motherboard. Well, there goes the IEEE 488 interface board... By the way, the heatsink I used does #0t have a
fan, although the original one had it (presumably because it was a very small heatsink). Hawiiig > fan would make
things a bit messy as you would have to provide power for it. It turned out not to O° needed, anyway.

Before ever getting the QXL I checked in the Motorola literature whether the 68040 will work normally at a
vastly reduced clock - which, amazingly, they don't guaranise (and explicitly state it). Checking with Stuart at the
meeting turned out that it does. After all, I never tica CPUs at frequencies vastly lower than they were designed
for. I usually (blush) tended to ‘test’ tem at higher frequencies... sorry - I can't help myself. A computer can never
be too fast...

Then came the big moment, and the PC with the QXL in it still set at 20 MHz operation, was switched on for a
trial run. Although the machine I use is pretty exotic (EISA with some very strange boards in it) there were no
problems at all, and the monitor soon showed a rather small, but very well known QL start-up screen! It was kind
of strange seeing it on a 19” monitor, so I quickly decided to configure the SMSQ file to start up in 800 by 600
pixel resolution. It took a bit of juggling with making a copy of the disc in MS DOS, but the same well known
screen next appeared somewhat flattened in the upper left corner of the monitor. Following the instructions (yes, I
actually DID read them beforehand) I soon had a winl_ formatting to 128Mb. It took far less than I thought it
would, based on other people's comments at one of the shows in the past - a caching controller really helps
things. OK, OK, so I use a powerful controller - sorry, I had nothing to do with what is in the machine. They
actually forced me to use it because they needed the one which originally came in the machine, because (yes, you
guessed it) they didn’t have drivers for the caching one for a Microsoft something or other. It didn't bother me,
and I refrained from publicising my opinion about their criteria. The controller has a Transputer T800 and is in
my opinion far more clever than the PC it's plugged into.

Anyway, the odds and ends I picked up from home soon came into play and the well known buttons and an
extremely old QPAC2 came up, this time with the mouse moving the pointer, without me making any previous
arrangements.

At this point, a disclaimer might be in order:

Do not attempt to duplicate the following procedures at home unless you really know what you are doing!
Besides the possible problems you might have, some of the procedures will render the QXL's warranty void, and
if you do something wrong, you might end up with a much larger investment than you expected!

OK, that's done, now back to business...

Having established that the QXL is happily working, I pulled some faster clock oscillators out of my bag - they
also came from my desk drawer, and were mostly pulled from discontinued equipment. This of course does not
mean new ones won't do the job - in fact don't use ‘recycled’ components unless you can test them beforehand,
and on proper testing gear! Cheating might cost you a lot more than buying new components.

The QXL uses a crystal oscillator to derive all timing and the CPU clock - that's the small metal can in the corner
of the board. Originally, this is rated at 40 MHz, the clock frequency for the CPU is half the frequency of the
oscillator. I had already prepared a S0 MHz and a 60 MHz oscillator to try out, to see if the QXL will work at 25
and 30 MHz respectively.

38

QXL... at Full Throttle - (cont'd)

Before you go about clocking the QXL at a higher speed, check what speed RAM chips it has. The speed is
usually the last number on the chip, separated from the rest by a hyphen. In the course of time three speed grades
of memory have been used on the QXL - 80ns (slowest), 70ns and 60ns (fastest). If you have the slowest RAM,
proceed at your own peril - the 80ns RAM is unlikely to work over 20 MHz, but the problems might not be so
obvious. Look for unexplainable crashes - if they occur, it's likely the RAM is too slow. 70ns RAM should be
perfectly OK up to 25 MHz, and probably a bit more. 60ns RAM is fastest, and at present you cannot get faster
chips on the market. If you recently bought a QXL it's most likely to have 60ns RAM on it. Mine does, anyway.
Nevertheless, Stuart Honeyball warned me that the QXL might not work at a much faster rate, because of the
slower glue chip - Miracle do faster (33 MHz) QXLs at request, but they use a faster glue chip which was still on
order and could not make it to the Italian meeting. I decided that a heatsink on the glue chip (one I bought about
4 years ago for...something - I can't really remember what, but it seemed a good idea then) would be a good
starting point, until the faster glue chip arrives by post. The glue chip works faster at lower temperatures, so
cooling it down helps. The same is true for most modern chips, including CPUs.

Replacing the 40 MHz oscillator for a 50 MHz one showed that the QXL worked superbly at 25 MHz, with the
CPU staying as worm as at 20 MHz - only slightly, that is. In all probability, using a good heatsink on the CPU
and the glue will enable even the standard QXL to work reliably at 25 MHz, I think that has been done by other
users.

Not having a faster oscillator, I had to settle (reluctantly!) with running the QXL at 30 MHz, by plugging in a 60
MHz oscillator. The first thing I did was to feel the heatsink - and again it was only slightly warm. In comparison
with a (very well remembered) check of a 486DXS0 heatsink, this was an utter disappointment. That check was
almost a multimedia happening - it involved humorous (to the audience) visual and audio stimulation (me
jumping and screaming) and it was fairly expensive - the results being the purchase of a MUCH larger
replacement heatsink and a fan. I found it strange that a SMALLER heatsink would be adequate, the PC logic of
doing things must be rubbing off!

Now came the moment to test the speed. This was done by using the excellent Ergon Zexcel ZX Spectrum
emulator. I had timed certain things on the SGC at home, and it seemed a good idea to use them as a baseline.
This is where the 'A computer can never be too fast’ clause was seriously challenged - even the very complex
games on the Spectrum are significantly slower than the QXL, in some cases the QXL is almost 3 times faster! I
had to disable caches, and in one occasion even use SLUG 2 to get usable speed. Timing was very difficult, so I
can only offer a very approximate index - between 180% and 250% of a SGC. The next test was drawing some
fractals using a very old program, which has a nice feature - it stores the time it took to generate a fractal with the
parameter data. Unfortunately, it turned out not to be compatible with SMSQ, although I managed to get it
Tunning (more or less), albeit without the ability to access files. I used the standard Mandelbrot set which is the
default for the program. Not having any timings around, | tried it again at home, and it turns out that using a
floating point algorithm (which is about 6 times slower than the integer one) is about twice as slow as the SGC
using the integer algorithm. That's makes the QXL at 30MHz almost 3x faster than the SGC.

Now, for the moment you can forget about the disclaimer from above - this procedure you
are wholeheartedly encouraged to perform:

Around that time (11 AM or so) my colleagues started peeking at my monitor, intrigued by the very peculiar (for
them) display. It took about 10 minutes for me to get them interested and extremely distrusting to some of my
claims. Then I offered to buy a pizza to anyone who finds ANY editor (even the simplest) and manages to start
more copies on a 16Mb PC with Windows, than I can on a 8M QXL. If I win, I get a pizza myself. | used QD as
the editor of choice (not having any others around). Since it's set up as a hotkey, a simple HOT_DO in a loop was
enough - in a few minutes the QXL started ‘burping’ indicating there is no more memory available. QPAC2 Jobs
which was opened beforehand was picked, and it presented a VERY large window containing 191 jobs. Windows
3.11 on a 16Mb PC managed 16 Notepad editors before coughing up a 'Not enough memory...'. Who says there's
no such thing as a free lunch? Not surprisingly another wager didn't work, because they believed me instantly
when I claimed that removing all the jobs will return all the memory, and of course it did.

39

QXL... at Full Throttle - (cont'd)

At this point you may consider me a low-life for doing a thing like that - sorry if anyone is offended but it really
felt good - and it tasted even better.

In the course of the next few weeks I've been using the QXL heavily, first in a 5 day long test run to see if the
bodged 30 MHz upgrade will make it crash, due to the slow glue chip. The QXL was made to calculate an
iterative function (x=2 : rep : x=In(x) : x=x*((x>0)-(x<=0)) : print x : end rep) - which looks as a random number
generator (but it's not), in the background, i.e. without the PC front end running. This is one of the things I like
very much about the QXL - it's ability to keep on working even if the PC front end program stops, as long as the
QXL itself does not need the PC's input and output facilities. The later excludes screen output, which is very
convenient. After 5 days the test was ended because there was a power brownout. I had checked the QXL only
hours before that and it was doing nicely. In my experience the QXL has mostly had problems with the PC front
end, and not with itself.

There is also a lot to be said about the speed of SBasic. In an almost ridiculous test, and I say this because of the
gross mismatch between the test machines and the simplicity of the test, the said QXL with SBasic and a
standard JM QL were programmed to execute an empty FOR loop with a floating point control variable. The
QXL was about 485 times faster (yes, 485!). It s very interesting to observe SBasic at work - in a test program
which involves calculating something similar to a fractal and displaying it as pixels on the screen, row by row,
two loops are used - an inner loop for the pixels in a row, and an outer loop for the rows in the screen. It is easily
noticeable how the second and remaining rows are drawn much faster than the first - namely, once the first row is
done, SBasic has executed all the commands in the program once, and has established it's internal data structures,
so the next time it goes over the same commands it's much faster - this had nothing to do with the fractal itself, as
it's uniformly complex. You are probably asking yourself why I have not said that SBasic compiled the program -
well, the manual clearly states it's a threaded code interpreter, so it's not a true compiler, strictly speaking - it
never actually generates pure executable code. Be that as it may, it comes pretty close to a ‘real’ compiler!

Screen handling on the QXL is also extremely fast compared to a QL, but the nature of the QXL's screen makes it
look much slower than it really is - the PC front end actually interprets the contents of the part of the memory the
QXL uses as screen memory, and displays it on a VGA card. I have found the rate at which it does this perfectly
acceptable - however, fast moving graphics and scrolling windows easily overtake the speed of screen refresh. In
some cases this is a problem - scroliing through a SBasic program using ED is very fast even with an editing
window of 800 by 600 pixels - in most cases the window contents have already scrolled a few lines before being
refreshed, creating an effect almost like multiple line scrolls in Lightning (LNG_ZIP 4 would be a good
approximation). In some cases the whole window is scrolled ‘instantly’ - this occurs when doing DIR, or
EXTRAS for instance. However, it's no real problem, and you get used to it really quickly.

There are other things about the QXL display which are intriguing - in one of the PE manuals, Tony Tebby
himself laments on hardware which would be able to display both MODE 4 and MODE 8 windows, at the same
time - well, the QXL is that hardware. The software needed for such a feat is of course an altogether different
matter, but it does provide food for thought! Another thing which is far simpler to do, and which I would like to
have, is the ability to program the VGA palette (maybe make it CONFIGurable in SMSQ) so that the eight
colours of the QXL can be programmed from a larger set, to the user's preference. While at it, it could be nice to
use the flash bit which is anyway not supported on the QXL to generate 16 colours in mode 8 instead. This all
needs only a small amount of programming.

File access on the QXL is a completely different matter regarding speed. It's well known that reading and writing
floppy discs is not very fast, but that is not always so - for instance, copying a collection of files from RAM to
floppy is actually faster than doing it one by one. Having two CPUs to do IO could probably help a lot as SMSQ
for the QXL progresses into newer versions - we already have the promise of background access to the floppy, in
form of a new driver. I can only say I can hardly wait.

A thing I don't like about QXL floppies is the treatment of the PC file and extension separator, which is the full
stop character. I think this should be treated in the same way as an underscore, or some other trick should be
used, so it becomes a simple matter to replace the dot by an underscore, by WREN or similar. Also, you cannot
simply do a WDEL .txt (you can with _txt), and other things along these lines. The same is true on other
SMSQ(/E) versions.

40

QXL... at Full Throttle - (cont'd)

Also, there seems to be a bug which makes the system think that a PC floppy disc that has been changed is still in
the drive. It will continue returning the same directory even if the disc is changed, until you pull it out and try to
access the now empty drive. The system will recognise there is no disc, so when you put another disc (or the
same one, for that matter) into the drive, it will be forced to re-read the directory, and not use a copy of it already
in memory. A good way to demonstrate this is to pop out into DOS by pressing CTRL SCROLL LOCK, adding
a file to the disc, and returning into SMSQ again. If you want the new file to be recognised by SMSQ, you will
have to pull out the disc, attempt any operation with it (unsuccessful, because there is no disc), and put it back
again. I hadn't tried what would happen if I save something onto a disc which is incorrectly recognised, for
obvious reasons. Interestingly enough, the same is reported by a friend of mine who uses SMSQ/E on a SGC. The
SMSQEE version is 2.50, as far as I know a few versions behind the current, so this might have been corrected
already. Luckily, if you know the problem is there, it's very easy to deal with.

Access to the hard disc is something different again. While being sufficiently fast, even with the crazy controller
I have in the PC it's still by an order of magnitude slower than QUBIDE with a fast drive, maybe even slower.
However, I'd go along with that if only I could have more than one QDOS drive without the need to have more
than one PC drive, or - even better - direct access to the PC’s hard disc. This might be wishful thinking, but as
they say, if you don't ask...

I hadn't managed to test the serial ports yet - the mouse I use is a bus mouse so it doesn't use a serial port (if you
don't know what the ‘bus’ in ‘bus mouse’ means, you aren't missing anything). One thing which I do have
connected to a serial port is a modem. Unfortunately, this is an internal modem, and it stands in place of serial
port 3 on the PC. Now, why in Heaven's name would the QXL, which at least tests the third port (if you try
running SMSQ from Windows, with a communication program running which uses the modem, Windows will
complain about a device conflict), not implement a ser3 for it? Could we have ser3 and 4? Please? The parallel
port works very nice, especially as there is a laser printer connected to it. Unfortunately, only one is recognised,
similar to the restrictions for the serial ports. How about a par2?

OK, before you continue, please remember the disclaimer from before, because things
are about to get experimental again...

After several weeks, I'm back to hardware problems - the postman delivered the new, faster glue chip, and a
higher frequency oscillator, for 80 MHz.

Initially, pushing the QXL to higher frequencies seemed quite simple - the fast 40 MHz CPU was already
installed, now all that was needed was to pop out the old slower glue chip, put in the new, and change the clock
oscillator for the faster one. After all that was done, and the QXL once again put into the PC, typing the by now
well known 'smsq' command promptly produced an error: 'QXL at address 2B0 is not responding’.

After a few tries, it was obvious that the time has come to boldly go where no one has gone before, and attempt
to modify the QXL. As always, the first thing to be considered was noise and associated problems. To run a
68040 at a given frequency, you need an oscillator for twice that frequency, as already stated. The 80 MHz
oscillator was intended to run the QXL at the full CPU speed of 40 MHz. At 80 MHz, digital electronics is
already VERY serious business - after all, only 10% more and you are in the domain of FM radio!

Anyway, after adding about 15 or so surface mount decoupling capacitors across power and ground, and a few
terminating resistors onto strategic places on the QXL board, the error message disappeared, and the QXL started
responding - unfortunately, with a blank screen. What was worse, no amount of simple signal integrity measures
would change that. Clearly it was time to call Miracle again and respectfully ask for advice.

Once again, Stuart Honeyball of Miracle proved extremely helpful, and armed with some new knowledge about
the internal workings of the QXL, a 68040 databook, and an oscilloscope, I again switched on my soldering iron,
in another attempt to make the QXL be a Turbo GTI QXL. Unfortunately, this was not to be - because of a lack
of instrumentation capable of observing the clock signals with the accuracy needed, I had to switch to the
fallback plan. If the QXL worked at 30 MHz and ALMOST worked at 40 MHz, why not use something between

41

QXL... at Full Throttle - (cont'd)

those two, like 35 MHz? About 20 minutes later, a 70 MHz oscillator. originally with totally incompatible output
levels (because it was intended for something completely different) got modified using a few electronic trinkets.
and - Voila! The QXL is now happily working at 35 MHz! This is probably how it will stay for a while - until
make a variable clock oscillator, simply to see if it will go faster. If it does, there will surely be a follow-up
article, so watch this space! As a indicator of the speed, the following program takes 31 seconds to complete on a
35 MHz QXL:

10 x=2

20 t=date

30 for f%=0 to 9999

40 for g%=0 to 19

50 x=((x>=0)-(x<0))*x

60 x=In(x)

70 end for g% '

80 end for f%

90 print date-t

To wrap this up, all that remains is to ask (and attempt to answer) the obvious question:

Why insist on pushing the QXL to 40 MHz to deliver only 12.5% more speed than it already does on 35 MHz?
Perhaps you think it doesn't pay off - especially since at 35 MHz it's already 75% faster than the standard. You
may be right. But, since I'm not going to get away by answering the ‘Why?’ question by ‘Because it's there’, I will
try to give other reasons.

One reason why I would like to push it as far as it will go (which is 40 MHz, without overclocking the CPU) is
that I think it's possible, without any adverse consequences. At 35 MHz, both the CPU and the glue chip stay
only warm, admittedly with the use of heatsinks, and in the case of the glue it's a really tiny heatsink. The RAM
is completely cold, and in fact the thing that heats up the most is the clock oscillator! Another indicator is that the
glue heats up practically the same at 20 MHz or at 35 MHz.

Another reason is that at this point it's cheap (and I'm convinced it won't suddenly become expensive - you know
what I mean!). In effect, neither of the techniques used could be considered exotic, or designed to cross
reasonable limits. Now, using Peltier semiconductor heat pumps to operate the CPU and glue around 0 degrees
Celsius (because most chips work faster at lower temperatures), that's what I'd call exotic - an yet something like
that has been done in the past by one of the major PC suppliers to push a 33 MHz 486 to SO MHz! Incidentally,
using that kind of cooling device has all it's own problems, one of them being that the moisture out of the air
tends to condense on the chip, and form layers of ice, so you have to take precautions. Before you ask, the reason
why I won't use exotic methods is that you have to have something to do in the future...

The third and final reason is, I believe, called progress. If you don't think it's necessary, why don't you simply do
SLUG 10 and see how long you can stand it...

IQLR

In our last issue we asked you if IQLR should switch to AS format rather than its current size. We received
more responses via mail - telephone - bulletin boards than we have ever had. The result is 94.8% of over 400
responses said you wanted IQLR to remain the same easy to read size. You have spoken. We will remain as we
are but, it is necessary to raise our subscription rates effective with our next issue (please note the changes on
page 2 of this issue). The new rates reflect the now 85% increase in paper and increase in postage cost.

(We will honor any renewals sent to our North American office at the old rates until 31 December 1995. This

DOES NOT include credit cards. Payment should be made by Cheque, Postal Money Order, Euro Cheque either
in US$ drawn on a US bank or £ drawn on a UK bank.)

42

MIRACLE SYSTEMS LTD

QXL GOLD

(SUPER) GOLD CARD QXL GOLD

£100.00 fully inclusive (£90.00 outside EU)

* Alternative to the QXL
* Uses the processor and memory of (SUPER) GOLD CARD
* Low cost solution

The QXL GOLD is a low cost alternative to the QXL. It connects onto the 16 bit (AT) ISA bus of a PC and has a
QL type expansion connector onto which can be plugged either aGOLD CARD or SUPER GOLD CARD.

The low cost is achieved by making use of the processor and memory of the (SUPER) GOLD CARD so the
speed will depend on the type of GOLD CARD it is used with.

It is anticipated that delivery will commence towards the end of November 1995. Orders are being accepted now.
Credit cards will not be charged and cheques will not be banked until the item is ready for despatch.

20 Mow Barton - Yate, Bristol - UK BS17 5NF
Tel/Fax: +44 (0) 1454 883602

From the House of Di-Ren,
an important hardware development.

In the past, users wishing to utilise keyboards of better quality than the QL (Final, atowcost

version have had no option but to incur considerable expense.
current QL keyboard membrane shortage, the time is fast approaching when

many others will be faced with the same problem.

Some time ago, we were asked to look into the matter.

‘keyfooard interface
—

(PSRs

With the

As a result, we have produced a simple,

small, yet comprehensive low cost keyboard interface for the purpose of attaching readily
available AT 101/102 style keyboards to the OL.

Features

Low Cost - only £32.50

Suits 101 and 102 key AT keyboards
Keyboards available (from £18.00)
Easy Fitting

Most keys translated to QL formats
Keypress record/playback facility
External keyboard lock facility
‘Small size

A. straight forward keyboard
interface for connecting AT| |
101/102 key style keyboards to the

QL All key legends displayed upon the
101/102 keyboard’s are translated, where
possible, to the appropriate QL
keystroke/combination. For instance, the
asterisk above the numeric keypad will
correctly return an asterisk on the QL.

Some keys are additionally translated
AT Keyboard _| Translates to QL
FS-F10 Shift F1-FS
Prt Ser/ Ctrl+C
SYSRE

LSYSREQ oj
Pause / Break | Ctrl+Space
“Scroll Lock _| Ctrl+F5

Page U Shift+U;

Pane Down Shift+Down
Home Alt+Left
End Alt+Right
Delete Ctri+Right

Backspace Ctrl+Left
**F11 To;

**Insert Alt+Enter or Shift+F4

FI Keypress
record/replay facility
£ or Shift = ~

Key above
TAB

* Scroll Lock works slightly differently
from Ctrl+FS in that it additionally_locks
the kevboard until Scroll Lock is pressed a
second time. The Scroll lock LED indicates
the current setting.

** The Insert key either returns Alt+Enter
or = Shift+F4 (TKII’s and = Quill's
insert/overwrite option key). The option
can be toggled with F11.
Pressing the key ‘S’ upon the numeric
keypad with numlock off will return
keyboard default setting codes.

F12 enables a sequence of up to 24
keypresses to be recorded and replayed as
required from interface memory.

Fitting
Very simple!!' Remove QL cover, remove
8049, insert interface, insert 8049, tape
membrane leads out of way and refit cover!
The interface comes complete with a 5 pin
DIN in line socket for quick connection to
keyboards

Note
This product is suitable for connection to
modern Brand le =AT 101/102
keyboards. Comp: lity with other, older
or multi-system keyboards is uncertain.

For the price of two keyboard
membranes, an interface that
will last a lifetime

Interface Price: £32.50
Post UK £1.50
Elsewhere £2.00
Interface + keyboard:
Soft Touch £50.50
Tactile key £56.50
Post UK £4.00
Elsewhere £5.00

For orders or further product information
contact:

Di-Ren
59 William St
Walsall
WS4 2AX
England

Tel/Fax ++44 (0)1922 33580
Email 100736@compuserve.com
Send fax in auto-send mode

Do not send credit card details via Email
Remember to include postage for all orders

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Important notice

Di-Ren will be closed between 14th and
28th November 1995

¢